ELEMENTS OF ". 

AGR ICULT URE 

SOUTHERN S "WESTERN 





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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANV 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMIT.LAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

SOUTHERN AND WESTERN 



BY 



W. C. WELBORN, B.S., M.S., M.P.A. 

VICE-DIRECTOR AND AGRICULTURIST OF 
THE TEXAS EXPERIMENT STATION 



Ncfa) gork 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1908 

All rights reserved 



LIBRARY of CONG^IESS 
I wo Copies KecciYt^:; 

MAY 22 1908 

XXC. Mu 



aA! 



ussA 



Coi'VUIGUT, 190S, 

Bv THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1908. 



MANUFACTURED BY 

BROCK & RANKIN. 

CHICAGO. 



PREFACE AND SUGGESTIONS 

The author feels no hesitation in taking the ground 
that agriculture has an educational, or mind-training 
value, fully equal to geography or history. The facts 
presented in agriculture are quite like those of physical 
geography in particular; the description of the develop- 
ment of crops, live stock, and agricultural industries gener- 
ally is the very best of history. In addition, the study 
of agriculture has a manifest advantage in training the 
habits of observation, as it treats of things that are about 
us — that may be seen, heard, and felt — and therefore 
truly educates through the environment of the pupil. 

If a geography class could be taken to Mount Vesuvius 
and could see the great volumes of ashes, cinders, and 
lava that are belched forth, covering hundreds of square 
miles with rich soil, what a lesson it would be in world- 
building and what an inspiration to the whole school and 
the whole community ! In agriculture we teach facts 
tliat may be verified on the farm, in the garden, by the 
roadside, and in the forest, and facts, too, of greater im- 
portance by far to that community than the operations of 
tlie far-away volcano. Beyond all this, agriculture will 
impart a mass of useful information about the greatest 
business in this country, which farmers cannot any more 



vi PREFACE AND SUCtGESTIONS 

afford to do without than doctors could afford not to know 
that the blood circulates. This information, put into the 
minds of pupils generally, will be imparted in a great 
measure to the present generation of farmers, and will be 
reflected in better methods and better results on the farms 
of the country. 

Agriculture can without any doubt be taught as easily 
as any other subject, if the truth is told, if it is put into 
simple language, and is arranged in fairly logical order. 
This book has aimed to meet these conditions, and on ac- 
count of the want of preparation on the part of many teach- 
ers, has a faithful list of questions at the end of each 
chapter. No one can answ^er the questions without under- 
standing the subjects. It is believed the questions will 
be a great help to teachers and pupils, and will enable any 
teacher to teach the subject quite as easily as geography 
or history can be taught. Indeed, it is believed that most 
teachers in country districts actually know much about 
agriculture, although they may never have read any book 
treating it. 

The author does not believe that most country teachers 
will have time and means to provide a large amount of 
illustrative material in the way of a farm, live stock, 
garden, orchard, and laboratory. Teachers of history 
and of geography are not expected to follow any such 
method, and their only illustrative material consists of 
pictures, or maps and globes, of things generally removed 
a thousand miles of distance or a hundred years in time. 
The principles of agriculture could be taught as well by 
the same means. Whenever a teacher is fortunate enough 



PREFACE AND SLTGGESTIONS vii 

to have a pupil who has seen the battleliekl of Gettysburg, 
it is never difficult to teach the history and geography of 
that whole region to that pupil and to the whole class. In 
teaching agriculture you teach something that all the pupils 
and their parents know something about, and their interest 
will be keen. An appeal to what the pupil has seen or can 
see for himself will in a great measure compensate for any 
lack of direct illustration. You are teaching something 
about the pupiFs old friends and acquaintances, and you 
are less dependent on experimental work on this account. 

It is not believed that any considerable percentage of 
the schools are in position to make agriculture more 
of an outdoor than a class-room subject. Neither is it 
advised in teaching this book to try to vary the order 
of chapters taught to better fit the seasons for experi- 
mental work. Agriculture is certainly a valuable class- 
room study; it should be so used, and calling to mind 
what the pupils have experienced and stimulating them 
to find more will constitute the best experiments. Then 
make all the suggested experiments and observations that 
time and means will permit. Try to get still others made 
by the patrons, who should always be consulted on account 
of their invaluable practical experience. Remember, these 
farmers know more than the author of your text-book 
about many agricultural matters. 

In preparing this book the author supposes that its 
readers are acquainted to some extent with agricultural 
matters from practice and observation. The smaller 
details of information have been left to be got in some 
other way, if not already known. Only the general truths 



viii PREFACE ANJ) srcUJESTIONS 

and useful principles about the main features of agri- 
culture have been attempted. 

No attempt has been made to agree with other authors ; 
in fact, in many very important matters, views directly 
o[)posite to those of most agricultural writers have been 
taken. Agriculture as a science is new . Mucli tliat we 
believed true ten 3^ears ago has been disproved. Tlie dis- 
credit attaching to so-called ''book farming*' no doubt 
came about from the widespread })ublication of so much 
matter that was untrue and hurtful to those attempting 
its practice. The Agricultural Experiment Stations of 
the country have given us tlie nu)st reliable agricultural 
literature we have in the record they liave made of their 
own research and of the practical work of farmers witli 
Avhom they have cooperated. In ditfering with other 
authors, most of whom wrote a number of years ago, this 
work is in substantial agreement wdth the combined re- 
sults of all the experiment stations, so far as these 
results have been published. It is fully believed that in 
this little volume enough of truth applicable to the sec- 
tions intended to be served will be found, and enough 
of error has been pointed out to make the book one of 
general usefulness. 

While written for the schools, this work should be no 
less valuable for the farmer and general reader. The fact 
that it gives useful information about agricultural affairs 
in language easily understood, being otherwise suitably 
arranged for school work, should make it onl}^ more 
valuable to the farmer, wlio is a student no less than the 
public school pupil. 



PREFACE AND SUGGESTIONS ix 

The author has received valuable help and advice from 
Dr. H. H. Harrington, President of the Texas Agricul- 
tural and Mechanical College, and Dr. C. P. Fountani, 
Professor of English, who patiently criticised the entire 
work. He is under obligation also to almost the entire 
faculty of the above-named institution for kind assistance. 

January 13, 1908. 



CONTENTS 



I. The Resources of the Farmer 

II. The Building of a Plant 

III. The Makixg of the Soil . 

IV. Kinds of Soil .... 
V. Rainfall and Productions of Texas 

VI. Chemistry of Soil and of Plants 

VII. The Physics of the Soil : Storage of 

VIII. Bacteria or Ger:\i Life . 

IX. The Botany of our Crops 

X. Grafting and Budding 

Xr. Seed Selection .... 

XII. Improving the Land . 

XIII. Rotation of Crops 

XIV. Manures and Fertilizers 
XV. Commercial Fertilizers . 

XVI. Plowing 

XVII. Preparation for Planting 

XVIIL Irrigation 

XIX. Insect Friends and Enemies . 

XX. Cotton . 

XXL Corn . 

XXII. Wheat and Oats 

XXriL Rice 

XXIV. Sugar Cane. 

XXV. The Sweet Potato 



Water 



PAGE 
1 



15 

28 

:n 

46 

52 

62 

«;.s 

78 

86 

!)2 

US 

106 

112 

119 

125 

1:^5 

149 

154 

162 

169 

17(! 



xu 



CONTENTS 



iMlAPTER 




PAGK 


XXVI. 


The Cowpka and Peanut .... 


181 


XXVIL 


1'OBACCO 


18H 


XXVIIL 


SoKGHUM, Kafir, and Milo-Maize . 


KM) 


XXIX. 


The Velvet and Soy Beans, Alfalfa. IIaih\ 






Vetch 


DM) 


XXX. 


The Clovers and MiNoii Croi-s 


•JOl 


xxxr. 


Other Hay and Pastuke (trassks . 


•JU8 


XXXTI. 


Orchard Crops 


2\ry 


XXX 1 1 1. 


Truck Crops 


227 


XXXTY. 


The Feeding of Animals .... 


234 


XXXV. 


The Making of a Ration .... 


2M 


XXXVL 


Animal Diseases 


250 


XXXVIL 


Animal Husbandry 


255 


xxxviir. 


Raising Horses and Mules 


258 


XXXIX. 


Cattle 


263 


XL. 


Hogs, Sheep, Goats, Poultry, and Bees 


275 


XLI. 


Dairying 


286 


AlM'ENDIX 




295 


(Jl.OSSAUY 





:J23 


]N^)^:x . 




329 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College 



Sprouting Pea .... 

Weathering of Kock, forming Soil 
Glacier in the Alps 
Where a Glacier Melts . 
Trees assist in breaking Rock 
Soil Divisions of Texas . 
Alkali Land .... 

8. Former Inhabitants of the Plaini- 

9. Present-day Scene on the Plains 

10. Soil Areas of the Cotton Belt 

11. Rainfall Map of Texas . 

12. Showing Capillary Action of Soils 

13. Stirring Soil when Wet and when in Rij 

14. Different Bacteria greatly Magnified 

15. Tubercles on Roots of Legumes 

16. Fibrous Roots of Corn . 

17. Osmosis 

18. Flower of the Apple 

19. Lily of the Valley . 

20. Steps in Budding . 

21. Ring Budding for Oranges and Pecans 

22. Grafting 

23. The Proper Depth to plant Fig Cutting 

24. Old Pecan Tree growing Paper-shell Buds 
2o. Testing Seed 

26. Pure and Impure Alfalfa Seed 

27. New INIexico Date Palm .... 



alit Condition 



Frontispiece 

PAGE 



XIV 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FIG. 

'28. Terraced Land ....... 

"29. Corn Grown on Washed and on Terraced Land 

;{(). Terraced Land and Hows ..... 

ol. Best Shape for an Open Ditch .... 

82. Tile Draining 

33. Cowpeas and Sweet Sorghum .... 

34. Hogs grazing Cowpeas 

35. Fertilized and Unfertilized Cotton 

36. Sandy-land Plow^ 

:)7. Black-land Plow 

■'58. Steam Plow on the Plains 

39. Sub-surface Packer 

40. Irrigating between Rows 

41. Spraying Fruit Trees 

42. Boll Weevil and Larva ... 

43. Different Life Sizes of Adult Boll Weevils . 

44. Punctured Square containing Young Weevils 
4."). Karly and Late Cotton in Boll Weevil District 
4(). (lood Type of Cotton Plant 

47. Poor Type of Cotton Plant 

48. Rolling Fresh Cotton Bed to firm the Soil for Planting 

49. Mississippi Cotton Field 

50. Round Cotton Bales 

51. Long and Short Staple Cotton .... 

52. American Bale of Cotton as it gets to Europe 

53. Corn and Cowpeas 

54. Wheat planted in Loose Soil and in Soil Compacted 

55. AVheat Field on the Plains 

5fj. Oats and Vetch 

57. Hice Field in Louisiana 

58. Filipinoes plowing in Mud, prej^aring Land for Rice 

59. Seeded Sugar Cane 

60. Way to use a Saccharimeter 

61. Cutting Sugar Cane in Louisiana .... 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XV 

FKi. PAGE 

62. Hill of Sweet Potatoes 177 

63. Digging Sweet Potatoes 179 

6L Spanish Peanuts 183 

65. Saving Peanuts 184 

66. Tobacco growing under Cheese-cloth Shade .... 187 

67. Harvesting Sorghum " . . . 191 

68. Field of Kafir Corn 193 

69. Soy Bean 197 

70. Stacking Alfalfa Hay 198 

71. Red Clover 201 

72. Crimson Clover 203 

73. Florida Beggar Weed 204 

74. Rape Field .205 

75. Jerusalem Artichoke 206 

76. Johnson Grass 211 

77. Guinea Grass, Biloxi, Mississippi 212 

78. Intensive Farming — Chinese in Hawaii grow Four Crops 

at Once 215 

79. Irrigating an Orchard 216 

80. Well-trimmed Texas Peach Tree 217 

81. San Jose Scale on Peach Trees 218 

82. Cocoanut Plantation as seen in Florida, Porto Rico, Hawaii, 

and the Philippines 219 

83. An Apple Branch 220 

84. Figs at the Texas Experiment Station 221 

85. Smyrna Fig Trees, California 222 

86. Grape Fruit at Beeville, Texas, Branch Experiment Station 224 

87. Texas Orange Tree 225 

88. Harvesting Irish Potatoes 227 

89. Small Hotbed 229 

90. Gathering Tomatoes . . 230 

91. Cabbage Field 231 

92. Southwest Texas Steers being fattened on Cactus and Cot- 

ton-seed Meal . . .' 237 



XVI 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATrONS 



FIG. 






I'AGE 


93. Coach Type 25f> 


94. Draft Type : Percheron 






260 


95. Zebu, or Sacred Bull of India 






263 


96. Dual Purpose Cattle : Devon and Red Poll . 






265 


97. Beef Cattle : Short Horn and Hereford 






267 


98. Showing Beef Cattle at the Texas Agricultural 


aiul 


M.- 




chanical College 






270 


99 Breeds of Swine : Tarnworth and Duroc Jersey 






276 


100. Breeds of Swine : Poland China and Berkshire 






277 


101. Razor Backs for Want of Feed . 






278 


102. Movable Fence 






279 


103. Sheep and Goats 






280 


104. Flock of Angoras 






281 


105. Sheep Ranching in the West 






. 282 


106. Plymouth Rock Hen 






. 283 


107. Brown Leghorn Hen 






. 28:5 


108. Bronze Gobbler 






. 284 


109. Round Silo 






. 287 


110. Dairy Cows: Jersey and Holstein Dehorned 






. 288 


111. Cream Separator 






. 290 


112. Pure and Impure Milk 






. 292 


113. Box Churn 






. 293 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

SOUTHERN AND WESTERN 
CHAPTER I 

THE RESOURCES OF THE FARMER 

Usually the first object of tlie farmer is to grow plants. 
These may be used or sold, or they may be fed to animals, 
and the animals or animal products used or sold. For 
example, cotton may be grown and sold, and the seed may 
be fed to cows, and milk and butter produced for home 
use and for sale. 

Plants Necessary for Man and Animal Life. — The earth 
and the air are rich in the things needed to produce bone 
and muscle and blood. Yet animals would starve if they 
tried to live on rock, or earth, which is only ground-up 
rock. Man and his servants, the other animals, cannot 
digest rock or earth. Neither can they use to build up 
their bodies any of the gases of the air they breathe. 

Plants, however, our other servants, send their little 
threadlike roots all through the soil. These roots twine 
themselves about the little rocks, or soil grains, and suck 
from them the substances they need for growth. Their 
green leaves, too, through little openings or breatliing 
pores, known as stomata, take in tlie gases of the air, and 
find in these one of the most important things needed to 

B 1 



2 ELEMENTS OF AGRICLLTURE 

iiiiike them large and strong. This same element is also 
•nbeded for the growth of our bodies, and since we can get 
none of it from the air, we must get our supply by eating 
plants or substances obtained from plants. So, by eating 
and digesting the plants, we can use the materials the 
plant roots get from the soil. 

Earth, Air, and Water. — All the animal kingdom, in- 
cluding man, is made up of the elements of the earth, the 
air, and the water. Water is the only one we can use 
for growth without the help of plants, but we cannot live 
on water. If it were possible that all the plant world 
could go on a strike, animal life perhaps could not endure 
on the earth more than a month. 

Plants purify the Air. — Our faithful servants of the 
plant kingdom not only stand between us and starvation, 
but also purify the air that we breathe. When we breathe 
the air, part of the oxygen gas we take in is used in the 
lungs to purify our blood. In its place we exhale, or 
breathe out, a gas called carbonic acid gas. The air of a 
closed room which contains very much of this gas is unfit 
for breathing. 

Plants use Carbonic Acid Gas. — When green leaves 
take in air, they use the carbon of the carbonic acid gas 
which the air contains, and give out pure oxygen. If it 
were not for this work of plants, the whole atmosphere 
would become so filled with carbonic acid gas as to be 
like a small, close room. Animal life would probably 
soon cease for want of pure air. You may ask wh}^ we 
do not die in winter when there are few green leaves. 
Your geography teaches that the trees are green in winter 



THE RESOURCES OF THE FARMER :] 

throughout the Southern hemisphere, and are green in tlie 
torrid zone all the time. Winds bring pure air to us in 
winter, and carry away the air of our zone to be purified. 

Animal Life of Use to Plants. — Animals in turn give 
oH' from their lungs carbonic acid gas for plants. But 
the burning of wood and coal and the rotting of leaves, 
wood, and other vegetable matter also make this gas. 
So the plants could live without the animals, but prob- 
ably they would not thrive quite so well. As animals, 
including all worms, insects, etc., die, their bodies rot and 
add richness to the land. Earthworms and many other 
lower forms of animal life make holes in the soil, let in 
air, assist water to drain away, and by eating parts of 
the soil and grinding it make it finer and richer. 

Animal Manures. — The larger farm animals, such as 
cows, horses, sheep, and hogs, eat grasses, weeds, corn, 
and otlier foods. The horses and mules give us work ; 
the cows, milk and butter and beef ; and the hogs, pork 
and lard. At the same time, if the fai-myard manure is 
saved and used on the land, the fertility of the soil will 
be kept up and the crops will be large. 

Value of Manure. — It is often true that the manure 
produced by live stock is worth more than the cost of the 
food eaten by them. This is true in feeding cotton seed 
when it sells for a low price. Then certain hay crops, 
such as peas, peanuts, alfalfa, and others, get their most 
costly fertilizing ingredient from the air. Even when 
these crops are cut for hay, their roots enrich the land. 
If the hay is fed to stock, very rich manure is produced. 
With plenty of live stock and crops like these to feed 



4 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

them, we would have very fertile land. These things 
will be discussed at length later on. 



QUESTIONS 

What products do farmers grow ? Give examples. Why could not 
animals hve without plants? Where do the materials that our bodies 
are made of come from? From what different sources do plants get 
the materials to grow with? What effect do plants have on the air 
we breathe? Why do animals make the air better suited to nourish 
plants? What is the name of the gas that plant leaves take in from 
the air? How does the air become purified in winter? What effect 
does animal life have on the fertility of the land? May animal 
manures ever have more value than the cost of the foods the animals 
eat? Why? Why do certain crops enrich the land rapidly? 

Observation. — Did you ever notice where old horse lots or cattle 
pens have been put into cultivation how rich the land is, and how 
long it remains rich ? 



CHAl^TER IT 



THE BUILDING OF A PLANT 



In order to grow plants we need seed, soil, moisture, 
air, warmth, and light. Some plants, such as weeds, and 
even some useful plants, need no 
sowing or cultivation. 

The Seed. — A seed is generally 
a little package of rich foodstuff 
for young plants, containing a 
germ, or young plant itself. The 
germ and the food are usually dry 
so as to keep well, and are covered 
with a nearly waterproof coat to 
preserve them till a suitable season 
for growing comes. 

The Seed and Root. — When the 
weather becomes warm enough, 
the seed is sown in moist soil, the 
germ sprouts or swells and begins 
to grow. The little plant uses the 
food stored up in the mother seed 
at first, till it can send out little roots through the soil to 
gather food and water for itself. 

The Root, Stem, and Leaf. — In the meantime the plant 
has made a stem, and on top of this have grown some 

• 5 




Fig. 1. — Sprouting Pea 



6 ELEMENTS OF AGRICLLTL'RE 

green leaves. These leaves have little opening's, and the 
stems of the plant have little cliannels for the food and 
water to pass up and down. As already learned, the 
stomata of the leaves take in carbonic acid gas with the 
air. By the aid of sunliglit the green leaf takes the car- 
bon, combines it with water, and makes sugar, starch, 
wood, and other materials. The leaf gives off the oxygen 
pure for us to breathe. 

What Plants are made of. — About half the weight of 
dry plants is carbon, most of which is gotten from the 
air. So we see the leaves are quite as useful in feeding 
plants as are the roots. 

Air, Water, and Soil as Food for Plants. — Nine tenths 
or more of the weight of dry plants is made up of ele- 
ments which plants get from water and air together. One 
tenth, or generally less, is made up of materials drawii 
from the solid earth. Burn a plant, and the part it got 
from the air and water will go off in smoke and other 
gases. The part that came from the solid earth will 
remain as ashes. 

When plants, or parts of plants, rot the same thing 
happens : the part that comes from the air goes back to 
the air, and the part that comes from the earth goes back 
to the earth. 

Plants build Animals. — The ash of plants is the part 
that makes the bones of animals, while the sugar, starch, 
and oils of plants produce the fat of the animal body, and 
also supply heat to keep the body warm and force to pro- 
duce motion and work. Most plants produce some sugar, 
as sugar cane ; some starch, as corn ; and some oil, as cot- 



THE BUILDING OF A PLANT 7 

ton seed. Other constituents in plants produce in ani- 
mals muscle, fat, blood, hair, skin, etc. We will discuss 
these things more at leugtli later. 

The Main Purposes of Plants. — The main purpose of 
every plant appears to be to produce seed, or in some 
other way to make other plants of the same kind. Peo- 
ple and animals sometimes consume the seed, roots, or 
stems that would produce new plants, and sometimes parts 
tliat would not reproduce. The new seeds are generally 
the most valuable for food, as in the case of rice, wheat, 
and corn. 

QUESTIONS 

What is a seed, and what does it contain? What provision is 
made in every seed for the young plant to grow from it? Of what 
use are leaves of plants? How do plants get their solid food from 
the soil? Does a plant use all the water tlie roots take in from the 
soil? Do plants get more of their food from the air or from the 
earth? What common substances does the plant make out of the 
carbon it gets from the air and the water it takes from the soil? 
About what part of the dry weight of a plant is derived from the 
soil? What part came from the air? Where did the other part 
come from, and how mnch does that make of the whole? If you 
burn a plant, where do these materials go? How nearly is rotting of 
plants like burning them ? What part of plants makes the bones of 
animals? What do the sugar, starch, and oils of plants produce in 
the body of the animal? Do all plants produce some sugar, starch, 
and oil? What parts of plants do people and animals use? 

Experiment. — Weigh a bundle of dry grass; burn it and weigh 
what is left. You can do this at school during recess. 



CHAPTER III 

THE MAKING OF THE SOIL 

The Soil and how it is Formed. — Although plants get 
fully half of their food from the air, we cannot change 
the air to make it better fitted for growing them. Plants 
get almost all the other half of their food from water, 
and all their soil food by the help of water. We can 
supply water sometimes, and can always so work the land 
as to make tlie rain water in the soil last a long time 
during drought. 

The soil itself affords no more than ten per cent of tlie 
weiglit of plants, and sometimes not over one or two per 
cent. Yet we can often so work the land and fertilize 
it as to double our crops. 

Soil made of Rock. — The earth was once covered with 
solid rock. Now it is generally covered with decom- 
posed rock to a depth of a few feet to a hundred or more 
feet. This powdered material is called soil. The top 
layer of this for a few inches is generally darker in color 
than the deeper layers, and is called top soil, or soil, 
while the layer under this for some distance is called 
subsoil. The upper layer is generally dark in color be- 
cause there is mixed with it rotting leaves, stems, and 
roots of plants. This material is often called humus. 
Plows generally run about deep enough to turn over this 
top soil, leaving the subsoil unbroken. 

8 



THE MAKIN(; OF THE SOIL 9 

How the Rock was ground up. — (ieology, the science 
Avliich teaches the past history of the earth, tells us some 
interesting stories about how the soil was made. The 
surface of the earth was at first covered with melted rock, 
surrounded by air containing water vapor, as we find the 



i^^i^ 







?4^f.''^'"'t--% 




^:^^'- 



Fig. 2. — Weathering of Rock, forming Soil 

air to-day. As the vapor high in the air became cold, it 
formed rain, which fell on the hot rock. Of course the 
rain cooled the rock and cracked it. As the rain water 
was heated, it rose in steam, and reaching the higher 
air, grew cold, and was again condensed into rain. 
Aofain it fell and cooled and cracked the rocks still more. 
Finally the rocks became cool enough for the rain to form 
little streams, and to wash and grind the little pieces of 
broken rock, and separate the coarser from the finer pieces. 
As the whole surface of the earth cooled, mountains and 
valleys, hills and hollows, were formed. Many large 
cracks, or seams, Avere also made in the earth's crust. 



10 elemp:nt8 of a(;riculture 

Cold weather came ; rain tilled all the crevices and 
cracks of the rocks, and froze. You know how ice will 
break pitchers, vases, or bottles. When water freezes, it 
expands with resistless force. Of (jourse the rocky sur- 
face was split by the ice. When the ice melted, the water 
formed into swift streams, carried the broken rock along : 
deposited bowlders here, gravel yonder, sand at another 
place, and tine soil at still another. 

Streams are steadily doing the same things to-day. 
Rocks are still being broken throughout the mountain 
regions by rain and ice, variation of temperature, winds, 
and other agencies. 

Early Plant Life. — Wdiile soil was thus being made, 
lower forms of plants, like lichens and mosses^ came and 
fastened themselves to the rocks. The roots of plants 
seem to give out an acid that eats away, or dissolves, 
the rock. These low forms of plants may be seen to-day 
slowly eating away old gravestones and stone walls and 
buildings. Plant roots will cut furrows in the surfaces of 
flower pots. When these first plants died, they added 
some humus to the soil and made it better. This fitted 
the soil for higher plants. Finally, animals of the lower 
kinds appeared, and when they died their bodies became 
a part of the soil. 

Glaciers. — At one period in the earth's history there 
was intense cold everywhere. Much of the Avater vapor 
of the whole air fell as snow or sleet. Whole valleys were 
rilled with moving ice, and formed what are known as 
i/laciers. One of these, which extended over part of the 
northern portion of the United States, is said to have 



THE MAKING OF THE SOIL 



11 



been a thousand feet deep and a thousand miles wide. It 
moved toward the south, tearing away rocks, and cutting 
away parts of hills and mountains. 




Fig. 



Glacikk in thk Ar.rs 



Most of the rocks thus collected sank to the bottom of 
the ice mass, and scoured the solid rock of the earth until 
they ground themselves into powder. Thus enough fine 
rock dust was made to cover a good part of the continent 
witli soil. This deposit, left after the melting of the ice, 
is known as drift soil. 

Stream Action. — The work of moving and sorting tlie 
materials by the streams has never ceased. Every creek 
or river moves rock, gravel, sand, or fine sediment. When 
a swift stream overflows its banks, the current of the water 



12 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



is checked, and its gravel and sand are allowed to settle. 
When the water gets farther aw^ay from the channel and 
begins to run more slowly, it allows fine mud to settle. In 
this way stiff, muddy soils are made. 








Fig. 4.— Where a Glacier Melts 



Wind-blown Soils. — Not only do ice and running water 
move soils, but in dry countries the wind blows enough 
dust and sand* to build up the land several feet deep. 
Streams have been filled, railroad tracks covered, and 
even cities have been buried by wind-blown soil. Just 
north of the Canadian River in Hemphill County, Texas, 
is a beautiful example of wind-formed soil. The south- 
west wind has blown away the fine particles of soil and 
left great mounds of coarse sand for many miles. Farther 
north finer particles settled and formed a loam soil. Still 



THE MAKING OF THE SOIL IS 

farther north the finest soil settled and made a silt or clay 
soil. 

Sedentary Soils. — While much soil has been trans- 
ported from where it was first made from rock, much of 
the earth's surface is covered by soil made from the rock 




Fig. 5. — Trees assist in breaking Rock 

lying just under the surface. The soil of much of the 
black prairie land of Texas and other Southern States 
was formed in this way. The lime rock is only a few 
feet under the surface. White, grayish, or blue lime rock 
powdered up and mixed with humus, or rotting vegetable 
matter, always turns black. These soils, lying where they 
were formed, are sometimes called sedentary soils. Those 
moved by ice and water and wind are called transported 
soils. 



14 ELEMENTS OF AGRICCLi UKE 

QUESTIONS 

Wiiy is it impossible to change the air so as to make it feed 
2»lauts better? What can be done to the soil to make plants 
grow better? Is it often profitable to furnish plants extra water? 
Js it possible to work the land in a way to make the rainfall 
last longer? What is soil? What is soil made of? What do you 
call the upper part of the soil, and what the lower part? What 
makes the soil darker in color than the subsoil? What do you call 
rotting vegetable matter in the soil ? How deep do plows generally 
run? What is the name of the science that teaches us the past his- 
tory of the earth ? What was the first condition of the surface of the 
earth? How did it become cooled? What effect did ice have in 
bi-eaking up the rock of the earth's surface? Where is soil being 
made at this time? What sort of plants first grew on the rocks, 
and what effect did they have? Describe how glaciers help make 
rock into soil. The soil made by glaciers is called by what name? 
Explain how streams sort out different kinds of soil. Besides water 
and ice, name any other means by which soil is moved and sorted 
out. "\^''as the soil of the black prairies of Texas, Mississippi, and 
Alabama transported, or is it lying where it was formed? 

Experiment. — Heat different kinds of rock ; pour water on them 
while hot. Note how many crack and break and how many can be 
easily powdered up. Do this at recess or after school. 

In winter notice how banks of ditches, streams, etc., crumble down 
after a freeze. Make a little lime by burning chalk ; mix it well in a 
ball of mud made of stiff clay. Let it dry, keep it, and observe it 
from day to day. 

Stir a quart of clay loam soil violently in a bucket of water ; let the 
water rest a second or two and pour the water off into another bucket 
and let it settle for an hour. Dry the settlings in both buckets and 
see what kind of soil you have in each. 



CHAPTER lY 

KINDS OF SOIL 

Sand, Clay, and Loam. — We generally know a sandy 
or clay soil when we see it. Sandy soils are made up of 
coarse particles of rock, and clay soils of very fine mate- 
rial, having scarcely any grain at all. Clay soils may be 
of any color, and are generally sticky, when wet. They 
are usually richer than sandy soils, but harder to work. 

A mixture of sand and clay, especially when containing 
a good quantity of humus, is what is called a loam. Be- 
sides, we have clay loams and sandy loams. The loam 
soils nearly always drain well and are easy to work; they 
are usually richer than sandy soils and stand drought 
l)etter. 

Then we have limy soils, sometimes called calcareous 
soils. They are made of rotten lime rock. All the great 
])lack prairie belts in Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama 
are covered with calcareous soil. It is stiff and sticky 
when wet, but crumbles into little sliotlike particles when 
dry. If you mix a little lime with a small ball of sticky 
clay and put it out to dry, it will crumble to powder when 
it dries. Limy soils are generally of great fertility. They 
often contain ten times as much plant food as sandy soils. 

Arid and Semiarid Soils. — In much of West Texas and 
north to the Canadian line and west to the Rocky Moun- 

1.5 



16 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



tains there is so little rainfall that the soils are called arid 
or semiarid. That means that they are not watered, or 
only half watered. 

These soils are generally loose and sandy in nature, but 
are very productive when watered. There is no sucli 
tiling as a poor arid soil. Soils that have plenty of rain 




'•^'Galveston 



Fio. G. — vSoiL Divisions of Tkxas 



No, 1. Coast Prairie 
" 2. Sandy and Clay Land mainly 

of the Timber Belt 
" 3. Lime Land 



No. 4. East Cross Timbers 

" 5. West Cross Tinil)ers 

'• (i. Red Lands 

'■ 7. Great Plains 



are called humid. The reason that arid soils are so much 
richer than humid soils is that the latter have had plant 
food washed, or leached, out of them all through the past 
ages. Chemical analysis shows that certain dry West 



KINDS OF SOIL 17 

Texas soils contain twenty times as much of some of 
the important elements of plant food as the pine-woods 
lands of East Texas contain. Wherever these dry 
lands are well irrigated, they become sources of great 
wealth. 

Alkali Land. — Sometimes dry lands are so full of 
salts hurtful to crops that they are called alkali lands. 
Alkali lands never occur in humid climates, because the 
rain washes out the harmful compounds along with some 
of the useful elements of plant food. 




Fkj. 7. — Alkali Land 

By heavily irrigating alkali land after tile draining it, 
the excess of salts hurtful to crops is washed out of it, and 
it becomes very productive. Carbonate of soda in excess 
causes what is known as black alkali. Still otlier harmful 
compounds cause what is known as wMU alkali. ■ 
c 



18 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

Geological Formations. — Looking at the map, Figure 6, 
we find tliat the state of Texas is divided into several 
belts, according to the general types of soil in each belt. 

Coast Prairies. — The coast prairies, occupying a strip 
of level land from thirty to sixty miles wide, are generally 
a clay or clay-loam soil, with a clay subsoil. Where the 
larger rivers such as the Brazos, Colorado, and Nueces 
enter the coastal plains, the soils are largely made up of 
the rich deposits from the streams. These soils are often 
very rich in lime, and richer also in the other elements of 
plant food than the rest of the coast prairies. As the 
coastal prairies reach farther west and get more and more 
into the dry belt, the soil becomes naturally richer ; that 
is, it contains larger amounts of plant food. So is the soil 
deposited by the Brazos, Colorado, and Nueces rivers 
richer than that deposited by the Trinity and Sabine, 
because the former three rivers rise and flow through 
drier and naturally more fertile sections than the latter 
two. The Trinity flows through rich black land, and its 
deposits are richer tlian those of the Sabine. 

Timber Belt. — North of the coast prairies lies an im- 
mense timber belt. This includes the long-leaf and short- 
leaf pine areas of East Texas and the other Southern 
States, and a broad strip of post-oak land extending far 
southwest toward tlie Rio Grande. These areas are roll- 
ing lauds, generally made up of sand and clay. Here, as 
in almost all humid sections, the subsoil generally contains 
a larger proportion of clay than the top soil. 

In the eastern part of this belt, where pine timber is 
abundant, the land is often very sandy and seldom 



KINDS OF SOIL 19 

stitfer than clay loam. These pine lands are naturally 
poor in plant food ; but they drain well, are warm, hold 
moisture well, and respond remarkably to fertilizers. By 
the help of fertilizers these thin lands produce fine crops 
of fruits, vegetables,, tobacco, corn, and cotton. 

The large area of post-oak land mentioned above also 
seems to need commercial fertilizers in order to give the 
best results. 

There are many small patches of lime land cropping out 
in the timber belts described, but the country has not been 
mapped carefully enough for us to know their extent. 
There is a considerable area of lime prairies comprising 
parts of Wasliington, Lee, and other counties, just west of 
the Brazos River. 

Calcareous Soils. — Occupying an immense area in the 
central part of Texas are the cretaceous, or lime, lands 
of the state. This belt was, even before it was cultivated, 
generally without timber, and hence it is called prairie. 
Lime lands are usually so rich in plant food that com- 
mercial fertilizers cannot be profitably used on them. If 
such lands become less productive, a crop or two of clover, 
grass, peas, or some other crop that will add humus to it 
and loosen it uj), will make it generally productive 
again. 

It never injures strong lime land to plow it wet, be- 
cause the lime causes it to crumble into powder, as has 
already been explained. 

Buckshot Land. — Much of the stiff land in the river 
bottoms is of this character ; when wet it is stiff and 
sticky, but when dry it crumbles. This kind of land in 



20 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



the bottoms is often called "buckshot" land, because the 
crund:)S it breaks into are somewhat like shot. 

Grand Prairie. — Tlie western part of the lime prairies, 
known as the Fort Worth Prairie, or Grand Prairie, has 
not so deep or so black a soil as the eastern part, or Black 
Prairie. The lime rock of the Grand Prairie is sounder 
and harder, and decays more slowly. Hence, the decayed 
rock, or soil, is thinner, and often has less hum Us, and is 







Fig. 8. — Fokmek Inhabitants of the Plains 



not so dark in color. The Grand Prairie is more ele- 
vated, more rolling, and consequently more subject to 
wash. Much of its soil, formed through the ages past 
from the weathering and crumbling of the rock, has been 
washed off into the streams, and much of it into the sea. 

Red Lands. — North and west of the great Black and 
Grand Prairie belts, and between these lime prairies and 
the Great Plains, lies a large area of soils generally red or 
brown in color, so far as the writer has seen, and composed 



KINDS OF SOIL 



21 



mostly of sands, clays, and loams. This region was also 
mostly treeless. This area also includes light, thin soils 
with occasional sections rich in lime, such as the gypsum 
deposits. This section scarcely contains such great stores 
of plant food as the black prairies do, but it is generally 
more fertile than the East Texas or South Texas timbered 
lands. Ikying west and north, these lands are naturally 




more fertile than the lands farther east and south formed 
of a similar kind of rock. The influence of rainfall has 
already been explained. It has been also well proved that 
the lands farther north do not wear and lose their fertility 
as the more southern soils do. As tlie soils of northern 
climates are frozen more of the time, their plant food is 
locked up so that it cannot waste away. It rains little 
as far west as West Texas in winter, when crops are not 



22 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

oTowinor. In East Texas and the other Southern States it 
rains much in winter, when crops are not growing, and 
hence the hind is leached and inipoverisiied. 

Chemical analysis has frequently shown that a clay 
loam soil in Wisconsin, for instance, contains several times 
as much lime, phosphoric acid, potash, and nitrogen in a 
form to be used by crops, as a clay loam in Mississippi. 
That is, the soluble plant food in the Mississippi soil is 
dissolving and washing away throughout the warm, wet 
winter, while in Wisconsin the soil is locked up in ice for 
perhaps six months. The Mississippi land should grow 
a restorative crop in winter to keep it from becoming- 
poor. 

Red Fruit, Truck, and Tobacco Soils. — Much of the East 
Texas timber belt has sandy loam soil varying from light 
gray to a bright red in color. The red color denotes iron 
compounds and good natural drainage. Tliis area pro- 
duces the line wrapper and filler tobacco of Nacogdoches 
and Palestine, the tomatoes, potatoes, and other truck 
crops of Jacksonville, Troupe, Henderson, Athens, Tyler, 
and other points. This same area is becoming one of the 
great peach-growing sections of the South. 

The Great Plains. — Lying still farther west, northwest, 
and southwest of the last area described are the Great 
Plains. The Plains comprise a large area of level land, 
ranfrinof from about 4000 feet hio^h in the northwest to 
about 2500 feet in the southeast. The Plains of Texas 
include most of the Panhandle and extend southwest to the 
Pecos River. The soils of these plains are said by geolo- 
gists to have been deposited in an ancient fresh-water 



KINDS OF SOIL 23 

lake. The soils vary from light sands to dense, stiff clays. 
In color they vary from black to red. The Plains are so 
bare of timber, except in sheltered canyons, that one 
might ride all day and never find a riding switch. This 
treeless condition is probably due to annual fires that 
swept over the country. The Plains extend north to 
Canada and west to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. 

The soils are rich, and as the people have gradually 
learned to cultivate them so as to conserve the twenty or 
more inches of annual rainfall of the eastern part of the 
Plains, farming has made splendid progress. Fine crops 
of kafir, milo, sorghum, corn, wheat, oats, melons, etc., 
are readily grown. The land is still mostly used for 
grazing, but it is being rapidly cut up into small tracts 
for farms. 

West of the Pecos River. — This section is generally 
rather mountainous and rough, but it contains many fer- 
tile valleys. With irrigation these are, of course, very 
productive. So far there has been no large development 
of farming in this region, except in the Pecos and Rio 
Grande and other river valleys. In the more elevated 
mountain valleys of this region apples and grapes thrive 
wonderfully under irrigation. Some day this region will 
rival any other part of the world in the production of 
these and other fruits. 

Cross Timbers. — It will be noticed from the map that the 
timber area of Texas extends up Red River far west of Fort 
Worth, and one narrow belt comes southward between 
Dallas and Fort Worth to Waco, and the other extends 
from considerably west of Fort Worth, and reaches nearly 



24 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

to Austin. These are called the East and West Cross 
Thnbers. The land in these belts is sandy, and resembles, 
in every essential particular, the large post-oak belt, in 
South Texas, except that it is generally more sandy. Like 
the latter, the land in the cross-timbers sections will no 
doubt respond profitably to the use of commercial ferti- 
lizers. These lands produce fine fruits, vegetables, and 
potatoes, as well as general crops. The cross-timbers 
lands were at one time considered almost worthless, but 
they are now held in high esteem. 

Soils of the Cotton States. — Figure 10 shows the different 
soils of the whole cotton belt as mapped by the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. It will be seen that the pine flats 
and pine hills appear in all states touching the sea. The 
lands marked "oak" also appear in most of them. These 
lands are often spoken of as oak, hickory, and short-leaf 
pine lands, as all these growths generally appear except 
in the western part of this area in Texas, where the 
short-leaf pine disappears. Black prairies occur only 
in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and a little corner in 
Arkansas. There are also considerable areas of lime- 
prairie in Oklahoma not shown on this map. The deep 
Red Lands appear only in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and 
Tennessee, and the Piedmont includes the more elevated 
regions of Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Alluvial 
lands are usually situated along the larger rivers, espe- 
cially the Mississippi. The two classes of Pine lands, 
the Oak, the Piedmont, and Sand Hills, are largely ferti- 
lized with commercial fertilizers, especially in the older 
states. These lands are not of high natural fertility, but 



KINDS OF SOIL 



25 




g^ il ^S I oS o2 th tl 

<- -•< -q; i uiz Zj ",.:; "-^ 

rfl S5 ^2 2 -=2 5x sp 3| 



26 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

are very susceptible to high improvement. Tliese and 
the Red Lands are hirgely of the same nature. In fact, 
most of the agricultural land of the earth is made up of 
sands, clays, and loams not very rich in lime. Where the 
sands and clays are mixed, making loams, the soil drains 
well, warms up early, works easily, holds moisture well, 
pays for fertilizing, and, although not naturally ricli, 
makes profitable farming and gardening land the world 
over. 

Light and Heavy Soils. — Sandy land is often called 
light land, although it may weigh, when dry, one hundred 
pounds to a cubic foot, while clay land Aveighing, say, 
seventy-five pounds to a cubic foot, is called heavy land. 
Sandy land is called light because it is easy to work. 
Clay land is sticky and tough, and is called heavy because 
it is hard to work. 

Light sandy lands are warm and good for earl}^ truck 
crops, watermelons, etc., while heavy clay lands are good 
for grasses, wheat, rice, and other crops. Corn, cotton, 
oats, sorghum, and many other crops do equally well on 
various kinds of soil, if the soils be equally rich and in 
suitable condition. 

QUESTIONS 

AVhat is the difference between sandy and clay soils? Which is 
generally richer, sandy soil or clay soil ? What do we call a mixture 
of sand and clay? What do you understand by calcareous soils? 
Where do yon find these? What makes such soil crumble when it 
dries? Are these soils generally fertile? Define arid, semiarid, and 
humid soils. Why are arid and semiarid soils generally richer than 
humid soils? What are alkali lands? What can be done to get rid 



KINDS OF SOIL 27 

of alkali ? Draw a map of Texas and mark the diiferent geological 
divisions. Describe the coast prairies. Will the soils be richer along 
the Brazos River where it flows through the coast prairies than the 
other coast prairie land? Explain why. AVhat varieties of lands 
are there in the main timber belts of Texas? What chai'acter of 
land is found in the [)ine timber belt of the Southern States? Under 
wiiat circumstances are pine lands good farming lands ? What do 
you understand by buckshot land? What is the difference between 
the eastern part of the Texas lime lands and the western part? De- 
scribe the red land areas of Texas. Why is land North and West 
naturally richer than the land South and East ? Describe the Great 
Plains. What kind of soils are found on the Great Plains? What 
kind of land is found in Cross-timbers areas of Texas? Why is 
sandy land called liuht land? 



CHAPTER V 

RAINFALL AND PRODUCTIONS OF TEXAS 

Figure 11 is a map of the State of Texas, showing 
tlie anioimt of annual rainfall in tlie different belts. In 
extreme East Texas fifty or more inches 'fall on the aver- 
age during the }'ear ; in another broad belt, forty inches 
or more ; in another rather narrow strip west, thii'ty 
inches ; then in a very broad belt extending west of the 
101st Meridian, twenty or more inches ; west of this ten 
to twent}^ inches fall. These lines of rainfall curve east- 
ward as we go north to the Canadian line. But northern 
latitudes demand less rain than southern latitudes, be- 
cause of shorter summers, cooler temperatures, and less 
evaporation. Western Nebraska should make as good 
crops on fifteen inches of rain as Texas can on twenty 
inches. 

Fortunately, in West Texas and the semiarid belt 
generally, where rainfall is light, a large proportion of 
the total falls in the spring and summer, when it is most 
likely to be needed. In East Texas and farther east, 
much of the rain falls in winter. 

These rain belts go far toward determining the kinds 
of crops that can be grown, and will be referred to 
frequently. 

Elevation and Production. — Texas varies in elevation 
from sea level to about five thousand feet, not considering 

28 



RAINFALL AND PRODUCTIONS OF TEXAS 



29 



the mountain peaks. Elevation influences climate quite 
as much as latitude does. A small portion of Texas about 
the mouth of the Rio Grande is truly tropical. All 
the coast country is subtropical. Here we find the 







a'' ( 1 U. lUl.'.ijl lUTo I 





i--' \ \ L>^Galveston 




Fig. 11.— Rainfall Map of Texas 



No. 1. 50 inches and over 
" 2. 40 to 50 inches 
" 3. 30 to 40 inches 



No. 4. 20 to 30 inches 
" 5. 10 to 20 inches 



sugar cane, rice, bananas, and oranges, while the western 
part of the Panhandle has exactly such a climate as grows 
sugar beets to perfection in Colorado and Michigan. It 
is mainly the elevation of the Panhandle that gives it the 
temperature suitable for the sugar beet. 



30 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

lietween the extremes, Texas has fine climates for wheat, 
oats, corn, cotton, and a great variety of other crops. 

Wheat will thrive farther west than corn, because it 
re(|uires less rain. Still farther west sorghum, kafir 
corn, milo-maize, etc., are grown, largely because the 
land is so dry that Indian corn is not a certain crop. 
Cotton flourishes in both wet and dry sections if there 
is warmth enough. Far to the west, alfalfa, Avhen irri- 
gated, revels in the abundance of plant food and the fine 
mellow, porous soil. Of course, the dry, rich soils of the 
Pecos, the Rio Grande, the Arkansas, and many other 
valleys, when irrigated, grow a great variety of crops to 
perfection. 

QUESTIONS 

Draw a map of Texas and show the different rain belts. About 
liow much rain falls in each belt? How many different kinds of 
climate are found in Texas? What effect does elevation above sea 
level have on climate? What effect does climate have on corn pro- 
duction ? AVhat crops do well where it is too dry for Indian corn? 



CHAPTER YI 

CHEMISTRY OF SOIL AND OF PLANTS 

The Elements of Matter. — We have several times referred 
to elements. An element is the simplest form of matter. 
Iron and gold are elements. Oxygen is an element. 
Elements may be called the A B C of matter. Just as 
twenty-six letters may be combined so as to form many 
thousands of words, so less than one hundred elements 
unite in various ways to form every substance in exist- 
ence. Some of these elements are solids, one is a liquid, 
and some are gases. Iron rust is not an element. It is 
a substance formed by the union of iron and oxygen. 
The chemist can separate the iron rust into its elements 
and thus obtain pure oxygen and metallic iron again. 
Water is a substance formed by the union of oxygen 
and hydrogen in the proportion of two parts, by volume, 
of hydrogen to one of oxygen. The water thus formed 
may be separated into these gases again. Such a 
union of two or more elements is called a chemical 
Gomfound. 

Chemical and Physical Changes. — When water evapo- 
rates, or when it forms steam, it is not then separated 
into oxygen and hydrogen, but merely divided into fine 
particles of water, and each particle floats in the air. This 
is a physical change in the water. The formation of ice 

31 



32 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

is also a physical change. Filing iron into dust produces 
only a physical change, just as breaking a piece of iron in 
two. Powder some chalk into dust, and you effect only a 
phydcal or mechanical change. Each particle of dust is 
as pure chalk as that you had before. If you pour some 
strong vinegar on the chalk, it will boil, get hot, and con- 
sume the chalk, forming new compounds in no way like 
chalk or vinegar. If we cut wood, a physical or mechani- 
cal change is produced. If wood burns, a chemical change 
is produced. When wood burns, another chemical ele- 
ment, the oxygen of the air, comes in and unites with 
the elements of the wood, and additional compounds are 
formed, all of which are entirely different from the origi- 
nal wood. 

Chemical changes completely alter the substances. A 
union of oxygen and hydrogen gases forms water, a 
liquid. Two gases may form a solid when united, or 
they may form a liquid, or another gas. Two substances, 
poisonous in themselves, may unite «i.nd form a harmless 
compound ; or two substances, harmless in themselves, 
may form a deadly poison. Common salt is made of a 
metal called sodium and a gas called chlorine ; both of 
these elements are poisonous before uniting. 

Plants as Chemists. — Plants are skillful chemists. Out 
of water and carbon plants manufacture sugar, oil, woody 
fiber, etc. From carbon and water, with a little nitro- 
gen, phosphorus, and sulphur from the soil, plants pro- 
duce the most complicated compounds found in plant and 
animal bodies. 

Elements found in Plants. — When plants are analyzed 



CHEMISTRY OF SOIL AND OF PLANTS 33 

(that is, separated into their elements), about fifteen 
elements are found in them, as follows : — 

carbon sulphur potassium aluminum 

hydrogen phosphorus sodium silicon 

oxygen magnesium iron chlorine 

nitrogen calcium manganese 

The sodium, manganese, aluminum, silicon, and chlorine 
are perhaps not necessary for plant growth, but plants 
will not grow in the absence of any one of the other ten 
elements. All plants use the same elements : but they 
do not use them in the same proportions. 

Where Elements of Plants come From. — Of these ten 
elements necessary for plants, the air supplies the carbon ; 
the water the hydrogen and oxygen, and the soil all the 
others. Some plants, however, can get nitrogen from the 
air circulating in the soil. 

Sunshine. — The sunshine adds nothing to build up the 
plants. Like a lire in the furnace of a boiler, it furnishes 
heat that causes the work to be done. The warmth of 
the sun causes many chemical changes to take place in 
the soil and in the plant. Without the warmth and light 
of the sun nothing could grow, nothing could live. When 
coal burns, it gives out heat. The energy that produces 
the heat in the coal was supplied to the trees perhaps 
millions of years ago by the heat and light of the sun, and 
these trees afterward formed the o;reat coal beds. A sfi^eat 
waterfall like Niagara produces energy to run railroad 
trains and factories, and to light cities, but the heat- 
energy of the sun raised the water from the sea and put 



34 ELEMENTS OE AGRICULTURE 

in motion the wind that carried it to the watershed of the 
river ; so that, after all, tlie work of the water was made 
possible by the work of the sun, the great source of all 
work. 

Abundance of Most Elements. — Only two or three of 
the elements of plant food furnished by the soil are ever so 
scarce as to prevent the normal growth of plants. Phos- 
phorus and nitrogen are most often scarce. In much of 
the sandy and loamy lands of the South neither of these 
elements exists in sulhcient quantities to raise good crops. 
Hence fertilizers are used. Potassium also may be scarce 
in very sandy or very poor lands. Lime may occasionally 
be needed in fertilizers, but not often. 

Most of the value of commercial fertilizers or barnyard 
manure is due to the nitrogen, phospliorus, and potassium 
which they contain. A wagon load of barnyard manure 
may contain no more than thirty pounds of these valuable 
elements, but even this amount gives it high value. 

Fertilizing Elements found Combined. — These elements 
ai-e always united with other elements in soils and fer- 
tilizers. About four-fifths of the air is pure nitrogen, but 
in the gaseous form it is of no use to most plants. But 
combined with oxygen and sodium, it forms sodium 
nitrate, a solid substance soluble in water. In this com- 
ptmnd it is a s[)lendid fertilizer. 

Phosphoi'us burns in air, and hence cannot be used in 
the pure state. Combined with oxygen, calcium, and 
water to form calcium phosphate, an important constitu- 
ent of bones, it is easily handled and is an excellent 
fertilizer. Bones, which contain about twenty-five per 



CHEMISTRY OF SOIL AND OF PLANTS 35 

cent phosphoric acid in this fonn, are fine fertilizers. 
Potassium will burn in water or air, and is consequently 
not found i)ure in nature. Combined with ox3'gen and 
sulphur into potassium sulphate, or with chlorine into 
potassium chloride, it is easily handled as a fertilizer. 
Wood ashes are rich in potash (one of the substances 
that make soap when mixed with grease), and mainly 
for this reason ashes may be good fertilizers ; they also 
contain some phosphoric acid and lime. Fertilizers will 
be discussed in a later chapter. 

QUESTIONS 

A\'liat is a chemical element? (iive an example of an element. 
About how many elements are there? What substances do the differ- 
ent elements nuike up? What is water made of? AVhat are the 
elements of iron rust? Are iron rust and water elements or com- 
])ounds? Can water be separated into its elements? If water is 
frozen into ice, is that a chemical or physical change? If you powder 
clialk, is that a chemical or physical change? If you pour vinegar 
on i>owdered chalk, what sort of a change takes place ? If wood burns, 
what sort of a change is produced? Which makes the most complete 
change in substances, chemical or physical changes? What do i3lants 
use for making sugar, starch, and oil? Can chemists produce sugar 
from these substances ? Can j)lants j)roduce still other substances 
tluit chemists cannot make? How many elements are found in 
]>lants when they are analyzed? Name some of the more impor- 
tant ones. Do all plants need the same elements for growth ? Do all 
])lants use the same elements in the same proportion? What effect 
does the sun have on the growth of plants? AVhere did the heat of 
burning coal first come from? Explain what the sun had to do with 
making a waterfall. How many elements sometimes get scarce in 
the land so that crops cannot grow well ? What do we do to supply 
these scarce elements? Name the two elements that are most often 
scarce. What other two occasionally are not present in sufficient 



36 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

quantity? Why do we not find phosphorus pureV What tVrtili/er 
ingredient is found in bones? 

Experiment. — Heat chalk and see if you can make lime. Stir a 
good quantity of this lime in water and let it stand awhile. Tour 
the clear liquid off and blow your breath through it, using a tubt^ or 
hollow straw. Note the milky appearance of the liquid. See if 
you can settle some of this chalk and collect it. 

Put some zinc in a little bottle of strong hydrochloric, or muriatic, 
acid, which you can get at the drug store. See if gas given off at the 
mouth of the bottle will burn. If there is enough of it and the neck of 
the bottle is small enough, it will burn. Being hydrogen gas, it will 
form water when it burns by uniting with the oxygen of the air. ' Be 
careful in this experiment, as a small explosion may occur. 

Heat a little ammonia; hold a rod wet with hydrochloric acid in 
the uases rising and note result. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE PHYSICS OF THE SOIL: STORAGE OF WATER 

Soil a Storehouse for Plant Food. — The soil made up, 
as we liave seen, of ground-up rock mixed with humus, 
or decaying vegetable and animal matter, is a storehouse 
of plant food. Even moderately g(^od land will have in 
a foot of depth enough nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and pot- 
ash to supply crops for two or three hundred years or 
more, but the roots of most plants feed to a depth of four 
or five feet. Since plants can use only soluble matter, 
and shice plant food becomes soluble ver}^ slowly, lands 
having a large quantity of plant food may sometimes 
become unproductive and need fertilizing. 

Soil a Storehouse for Water. — Tlie soil stores rain-water 
and gradually gives it up to the plants. Sometimes soils 
are known to hold water enough to nourish plants during 
a six months' drought. Ordinarily crops begin to suffer 
when they go without rain for three weeks or a montli. 
Crops need an immense amount of water. A mature 
corn stalk of large size may be said to have used during 
its lifetime about two barrels of water. The production 
of one pound of dry hay, or otlier dry plant body, requires 
the use of about 400 pounds of water. Most of this water 
is evaporated from the leaves. 

Water-holding Power of Soils. — Clay soil may often 
hold forty per cent or fift}^ per cent of its own dry weight 



38 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

of water and not be wet enough to allow any water to 
drip from it. We call this water soil-moisture. If a 
cubic foot of dry clay soil weighs 75 pounds, it will hold 
30 to 37.5 pounds of water, and will weigh 105 to 112.5 
pounds when thoroughly moist. A sandy soil will barely 
hold twenty per cent of its weight of water. A cubic 
foot of dry, sandy soil weighing 100 pounds will hold 
20 pounds of water, and will, therefore, weigh 120 
pounds when thoroughly wet. Dry humus will some- 
times hold twice its weight of water. Hence, if soil 
has plenty of humus in it, it will hold more water and 
stand drought better. Such is the case with new 
lands, or old land after peas or other restorative crops 
have been grown on it,- or land that has been in pasture 
a few years. 

A clay soil may hold in a depth of four feet ten indies 
more water than does sandy soil. Ten inches of water 
would be equal to ten big rains. It would be supposed 
that clay soils would always stand drought well, and sandy 
soils would always suffer worst from drought. This is 
not always so. Sandy soils generally suffer more than 
clay soils, but sometimes the clay soils suffer more. 
Sandy land will come nearer giving up all the water 
in it than clay land will. Crops can use the water from 
the sand until the supply gets as low as five per cent. 
In clay, plants can hardly live after the supply of water 
gets below twelve or fifteen per cent. 

Clay is often so wet in early spring that roots cannot 
go deep, and when a drought comes, the crops burn up. 
Clay land is quite sticky when wet, and if plowed wet 



THE rilYSICS OF THE feOU. 



89 



and dried suddenly by the sun, will be cloddy and very 
hard to get into good condition. Wlien very dry, it 
shrinks and cracks, thus breaking plant roots and c;i us- 
ing tlie plants to suffer severely from drought. 

A loamy soil with a good percentage of liunius will 
generally stand drought better than clay or sand. Loams 
also drain nearly as well as sand and can be worked almost 
as easilv. A good loam 
contains nearly all the 
advantages and but few 
of the disadvantages of 
sandy and clay soils. 

Kinds of Water in the 
Soil. — In a moist soil a 
thin film, or sheet, of 
water surrounds each 
grain, but there are small 
spaces between the grains, 
and will admit air 




Fig. 12. — Showing Capillary 
Action of Soils 



That is, the soil is porous 
Tlie water held as moisture is called 
capillary ivater. It moves about in the soil by capillary 
action. In a dry time water rises in this way from below 
to supply plants. A lamp wick raises oil by the same 
means. If you will insert some little glass tubes in a 
vessel of water, you will see the water rise in the tubes. 
The smaller the tubes, the higher the water will rise. 
This is capillary action. Capillary water, or moisture, 
is the kind of water most beneficial to crops. As smaller 
glass tubes will cause water to rise higher than larger 
ones, so a soil witli small grains, like clay or clay loam, 
having smaller spaces between the grains, will cause 



40 ELEMENTS OF AGKICl'LTURE 

water to rise higher in time of drought than coai'se sandy 
soil will. But since the sandy soil has large grains and 
large tubes, or poi-es, between the grains, capillary water 
will move faster in sandy soil than in clay soil. We have 
all noticed that rain water sinks into sandy soil faster 
tlian it does into a clay soil. 

Ground Water. — If we dig deep down into the soil, say 
thirty or forty feet, we find standing water, as in wells. 
This is called ground water, or the water table. Some- 
times we find ground water within a foot of the surface. 
When the })ore spaces of the soil are thus filled with 
water, air cannot enter, and roots of most plants cannot 
grow. Hence the necessity of draining the land. Ground 
water may remain near the surface for a short time with- 
out doing much luirm. In most soils, crops would never 
suffer from drought if ground water remained about four 
feet from the surface. Enough of the ground water 
would be drawn up by capillary action to moisten the 
soil and supply the crops. But when the ground water 
is thirty or forty feet deep, it probably does not greatly 
benefit the creeps. 

Hygroscopic Water. — Dust, apparently dry, contains 
•some water, as may be proved by heating a weighed 
(j^uantity of it to the boiling temperature of water, and 
then weighing it again and noting the difference in 
weight. This is called hygroscopic water. Hygroscopic 
water is of little or no value to crops, as it can hardly 
be used by most plants. Hay, corn, flour, cotton-seed 
meal, and most other dry substances contain about ten per 
cent of moisture that may be driven off by heat, but they 



THE PHYSICS OF THE SOH. 41 

will regain the same amount of moisture from the air 
^\hen they get cold. 

Importance of Water. — For each pound of soil food 
used by crops from 4000 to 10,000 pounds of water are 
needed, most of it being evaporated from the plant 
leaves. Some of this water is evaporated from the sur- 
face of the ground, and a little is used to help build up 
the plant. It can be seen from this Jiow^ very important 
it is to supply plenty of water either by irrigation or by 
so Avorking the land as to make it hold and furnish the 
crops the greatest amount of rain water. Water is not 
only an important food for crops, but it is the life blood 
of plants, as it carries all food into and tli rough the 
plants. 

Green or Succulent Plants. — Every green plant, or vege- 
table, is largely composed of Avater. Green grass, corn, 
sorghum, etc., contain seventy-five to eighty-live per cent 
of water. Melons, strawberries, cucumbers, and many 
other fruits and vegetables contain ninet}^ per cent or 
UKH'c of water; Irish potatoes, eighty per cent, and sweet 
potatoes, seventy per cent. Hay, even when dry enough 
to stack or house, contains thirty to thirty- five per cent 
<»f water. Yoti have noticed corn and sorghum wilt and 
droop on a hot afternoon; this is because the water is 
evaporating from the leaves faster than the roots can take 
it in from the soil. At night evaporation is not so fast, 
and tlie roots catch up with their work. 

Wet Soils too Cold. — In speaking of water for crops, we 
mean water in the form of capillary moisture. A soil full 
of standing water will neither water nor feed most crops 



42 



elemp:nts of agriculture 



to the best advantage, because it is too cold. All soils in 
our climate are too cold in early spring, and crops cannot 
grow until the ground is warmed by the heat of the sun. 
Even seeds will not sprout or germinate until the ground 
has been somewhat warmed. It requires five times as much 




Fk;. ].!. — S'l IRKING Soil whkn Wet and when in Right Condition 

heat to warm a pound of water one degree as it does to 
warm a pound of moist, sandy soil one degree. Therefore, 
if a soil is full of water, it takes a loner time for the sun 
to warm it up. Hence, land in sections where winter 
rainfall is heavy should be handled in a way to get rid of 
water before the spring. 

Evaporation produces Cold. — Again you have noticed 
that wet clothes in windy weather make you very cold. 
The water evaporates, or dries off, and takes up the heat 



THE PilVSICS OF THE SOIL 43 

from your body. That iiuikes yoa cold. So a soil full of 
water has been found to lose from its surface by evapora- 
tion several times as much water as a soil that contains 
only the proper amount of moisture. Therefore the wet 
soil will be much colder than a moist soil. 

A very wet soil has sometimes been observed to evapo- 
rate an i7ich depth of water a week more than a moist soil. 
The heat required to evaporate this amount of water from 
an acre of land would melt 600 tons of ice. The cold 
produced by evaporating this quantity of water would 
convert over 500 tons of well-water into ice. Hence it 
is that a thermometer stuck into a very wet soil often 
shows a temperature 10 degrees lower than it does when 
put into a well-drained soil of the same kind. It need 
not be wondered at, then, that corn and cotton will fre- 
quently remain small and yellow on undrained soil. Corn 
and cotton will not grow at 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but 
they grow well at 60 degrees. A plant may stand with 
its roots bathed in water and be able to use but little of 
it. In fact, the large amount of water in the soil, and 
the evaporation from it, may make tlie plant so cold that 
its sap will not flow. To prevent evaporation of moisture 
in summer and make cro[)s stand drought, land is cultivated. 
The compact condition of the soil is broken so moisture 
cannot be drawn up to the surface. Cultivating three 
inches deep saves the moisture better than a less depth. 

Least Amount of Water for Good Crops. — It has been 
found that about the least amount of water required to 
make crops is four inclies in depth for each ton of dry 
material in the crop. On tlie Crreat Plains, where about 



44 ELEMENTS OF A(;HICULTURE 

12 or 15 inches of rain can generally be counted on dur- 
ing the growing season, the land may be so worked that 
it will make three or four tons of hay to the acre ; and if 
the rainfall were conserved in the best manner, probably 
50 or 60 bushels of corn could be made to the acre. To 
furnish water to plants we want a moist soil but not a 
wet one. 

Drainage is such an important question that it will be 
discussed in a separate chapter, as will also the subject of 
cultivation as a means of saving moisture. 

Dark-colored Soils Warm. — Of soils of the same com- 
position and equally well drained, those that are dark in 
color will get warm earlier in the spring. You have 
noticed that black clothes are much warmer in the sun- 
shine than light-colored clothes. The dark-colored cloth- 
ing allows the sun's heat to penetrate and reach the body, 
while white clothing reflects the heat. So dark soils 
absorb the sun's heat more readily than do light-colored 
soils. 

QUESTIONS 

Where is the great storehouse of plant food? Suppose all the nitro- 
gen, phosphoric acid, and potash in the land could be used by croj)s, 
would the land make very many crops? Why do lands become ex- 
liausted ? How is water for plants kept over from one rain to another? 
Mow long do plants sometimes do without rain ? How long can most 
field crops do without rain and not suffer? How much water will a 
big corn stalk use during its lifetime? To produce a pound of dry 
hay, how much water must the pl|ints use? Which will hold the most 
water, clay land or sandy land ? Why will plenty of humus in the 
land make it hold water better ? Wliich will give up its water to plants 
most completely, clay land or sandy land? Why will clay land not 
always stand drought better than sandy land ? Explain what is meant 



THE PHYSICS OF THE SOH. T5 

by capillary water in the soil. What do you understand by the ground 
water of the soil? How near the surface does the ground water 
have to come to be harmful? How is ground water got rid of? 
p]xplain hygroscopic water. How could you compare the water 
plants use to the blood in our bodies? What is a succulent plant? 
How much of watermelons and strawberries is water? How much 
more heat will it take to warm a pound of water than a pound of soil ? 
What other reason is there for wet soil to be cold ? To evaporate an 
inch of water from an acre would use up how much heat? How much 
higher temperature can often be found in drained than in undiained 
soil? About how many inches of rain are required to nuike a ton of 
dry crop on an acre? AVhy are dark -colored soils w^ai iner than light- 
colored soils ? 

Experiment. — Grow a stalk of corn oi- other vigorous plant in a 
box of soil at the schoolhouse or at home. Cover the top of the soil 
with a piece of blanket or some material to see that water cannot 
evaporate from the surface. Weigh box and contents from day to 
day, and note losses in weight, which will represent evaporation from 
the corn leaves. Fill lamp chimneys as shown in Fig. 12 with different 
kinds of dry soil. Tie cloth over each and immerse ends<in pan of 
water and watch rise of capillary water in each. 

Grow corn or other plants in cans with no drainage holes, and in 
cans with holes in the bottom. Water both liberally and note results. 

Weigh potatoes, green grass, fruits, etc. Slice and dry them. 
Note losses and calculate percentage of water originally contained. 

W^eigh different kinds of well-dried soil after being put into pots. 
Wet them and let excess of water drip as long as it will. Then weigh 
again and note percentage and amount of water each kind holds. 

Keep one box of soil excessively wet for some days and another 
box about right for growing plants. Keep them in the sun. Insert 
a thermometer three inches deep in each soil at midday and at 
8 o'clock in the morning and note differences. Allow a crust to form 
on two boxes or pots of soil. Spread an inch layer of coarse dry sand 
on one. Weigh each from day to day and see w^hich one loses 
moisture most rapidly. 

All of the above are suitable school exercises. 



CHAPTER YTII 



BACTERIA, OR GERM LIFE 

Work of Bacteria. — As is well known, little forms of 
life, plant and animal, too small to be seen except with a 
powerful microscope, play an important part in nature's 
processes. The souring of milk is caused by millions of 

little living beings. The 
decay of fruit and the 
spoiling of meat are also 
caused by minute forms 
of plant life. Some kinds 
of bacterial life bring 
disease, and doubtless 
other kinds assist us to 
get well. It is entirely 
likely that we have more 
friends than enemies 
among these little beings, 
and without them we could not live long. Only a year 
or two ago the French people took a vote on whom the}^ 
regarded the greatest man that ever lived. A man named 
Pasteur was voted first, and Napoleon stood seventh- Pas- 
teur's fame comes from his study of microscopic life. Pie 
learned to prevent and cure by inoculation human and 
animal plagues. He learned to prevent charbon and 
rinderpest of cattle and to cure hydrophobia of man. 

40 




Fig. 14. — Different Bacteria 
greatly magnified 



BACTERIA, OR GERM LIFE 47 

Influence on Industries. — Patting up fruit and sirup 
in cans is merely heating and killing the germ life in 
the material to be canned, and then sealing it up so the 
air cannot enter and bring more germs into it. Meats, 
milk, vegetables, fruits, and most of the products likely 
to spoil may be preserved in this way. In making bread, 
wine, vinegar, alcohol, cheese, butter, and in many other 
industrial processes of the household, the farm, and the 
factory, we are directly de23endent on our little servants, 
the bacteria. 

Effects on Soils and Manures. — It has long been known 
that the bacteria play an important part in making soils 
productive, and in bringing about changes in animal ma- 
nures. The organic matter, the remains of plant and 
animal bodies, in the soil, rots because it is attacked and 
eaten by myriads of microscopic beings. As this organic 
matter decays, it furnishes plant food to the growing crop. 
Many other chemical changes that take place in the land 
are helped or hindered in the same way. Barnyard 
manure is full of germ life. It has often been noticed 
that manure loses half its value in six months' time. 
Certain bacteria attack it, and convert its nitrogen into 
nitric acid, whicli washes away in the rain water, or into 
carbonate of ammonia, which escapes into the air. The 
odor coming from stables is often caused by escaping car- 
bonate of ammonia. 

The best way to prevent germ life from destroying 
so much of the value of manure is to keep the manure 
well packed. An experiment in stall-feeding steers, at 
the Pennsylvania Experiment Station many years ago. 



48 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



showed that when the manure remained in the stable many 
months and became thoroughly packed, only about five or 
six per cent of the plant food was lost. When manure 
can be put out on the land and plowed 
under, the soil will catch and hold 
much phmt food that would other- 
wise be lost. 

Bacteria on Legumes. — As far back 
as the time of the Romans and the 
Greeks, it was known that clover, 
beans, and some other crops made 
the land they grew on better, but it 
was not known hoAv these plants 
made the improvement. It was sus- 
pected, and even asserted, about half 
a century ago, that these plants took 
in nitrogen of tlie air througli the 
leaves. This was proved to be un- 
trtie. Yet these legumes, or pod 
[)lants, were always rich in nitrogen 
and left the soil rich in it. Some 
said they sent deep roots into the 
subsoil and dissolved nitrogenous 
compounds and other plant food, 
and brought them up near the surface. 
Finally it was proved that plants 
do get nitrogen from the air, but not through their leaves. 
They get it through their roots, and by the help, in a 
remarkable way, of bacteria that live on the roots. If 
you will dig up a cowpea or a peanut plant, you will find 




Fig. 15. — Tubercles 
ox Roots of Legumes 



BACTERIA, OR GERM LIFE 49 

aii}^ number of little warts, or tubercles^ on the roots. 
These knots are the homes of bacteria that help the host 
plant to get nitrogen. Corn, oats, cotton, potatoes, and 
most crops cannot develop these bacteria on their roots, 
and hence cannot use the free nitrogen in the air. 

A crop of cowpeas, peanuts, or velvet beans grown on 
a single acre has often been found to contain 200 pounds 
of nitrogen in its fruit, leaves, stems, and roots. A ton 
of cotton-seed meal does not contain so much nitrogen. 
Of course, when such a crop is plowed under and rots, 
the land is greatly enriched.' Even when the crop is not 
plowed under, but saved for ha}^ the roots, stems, and 
fallen leaves will enrich the land. 

The same kind of bacteria will grow only on closely 
related kinds of plants. So it is often found that when a 
legume is planted for the first time in a neighborhood, 
it is well to spriukle the land with soil that has already 
successfully grown this kind of plant or a kind closely 
related to it. This supplies the new land with germs 
which inoculate the plant and enable it to produce a 
better crop. 

The effects of restorative crops on the land will be 
more fully discussed in a chapter on rotation of crops. 

Plant Diseases. — These little bacteria and fungi (singu- 
lar /'kw^M.s-) cause most plant diseases. Cotton rust, grain 
rust, pear blight, peach curl, tomato blight, and many 
other diseases are caused by fungi of different kinds. 
Some of these are very difficult to treat. Many fungous 
diseases are checked in a great measure by spraying with 
Bordeaux mixture. Some strains of crops are resistant 



50 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

to thete diseases. The red oat is much more resistant 
to rust than other kinds. A strain of sea-island cotton 
resistant to cotton wilt is said to have been found. In 
the tropics a small wild tomato grows with perfect free- 
dom from disease, where the finer cultivated kinds usually 
fail on account of blight. Root rot of cotton is a serious 
matter in much of Texas and in other sections. The crop 
dies in patches. Alfalfa, peanuts, peas, different fruit 
trees, and many weeds are subject to it. The fungus 
causing it does not live on the roots of sorghum, corn, 
wheat, oats, etc. Therefore, rotation with tliese crops is 
about the only partial remedy known. Melon wilt and 
cotton wilt are two other fungous diseases that cause great 
loss in some sections. 

Rotation of crops and burning of diseased plants are 
measures adopted to prevent the spread of all fungous dis- 
eases. The treatments for many plant diseases are given 
in the Appendix. 

QUESTIONS 

What do you understand by bacteria? What causes the souring of 
milk? Is gerin life harmful or beneficial to us? What is necessary 
in order to preserve fruit ? Is germ life of much importance in the 
arts and industries? Is it of any importance in soils and manures? 
By what means are peas and other crops enabled to enrich the land? 
How much nitrogen will a big crop of peas or peanuts add to an acre 
of land? Will all kinds of bacteria grow on all kinds of leguminous 
crops? What causes grain rust? Are there any grains resistant to 
rust? What causes potatoes to rot? Why should cut or bruised 
potatoes not be mixed with sound ones? What about root rot of 
cotton? What other plants does it attack? What plants are not 
attacked by this fungus ? How can one partly get rid of root rot ? 
What other fungous diseases of cotton are mentioned? What disease 
of melons ? 



BACTERIA, OR GERM LIFE 51 

Experiment. — Dig up peas, peanuts, and other pod-bearing plants, 
hi-iiig them to the schoolhouse, and examine little tubercles on roots. 
I'erhaps the County Superintendent could acquire a large microscope 
and let the schools have it by turns. In this case examine germs in 
milk, water, etc. It will be most interesting. Cut sweet potatoes at 
home, and inoculate with germs of rotting potatoes and note effects. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE BOTANY OF OUR CROPS 

Plant Families. — Botany, the science wliicli describes 
plants, divides all plants into great tribes, having certain 
degrees of relationship or resemblance. Corn, sorghum, 
sugar cane, oats, wheat, rice, grasses, etc., are put into a 
large tribe, because they all have leaves somewhat alike, 
and grow somewhat in the same way. This large tribe is 
again divided into grains and grasses. Some of the mem- 
bers of this large family are very closely related, as oats, 
wheat, barley, and rye. Sorghum and Johnson grass are 
about first cousins, while milo-maize and kafir corn are 
something like double first cousins, or probably as close 
kin as brothers. 

Another large family of plants bears seed in pods. 
Most of these plants support on their roots bacteria tliat 
enable them to feed on nitrogen from the air, as you have 
already learned. This family includes all the clovers, 
alfalfa, beans, peas, peanuts, beggar weed, and various 
other plants. The cowpea is more closely related to the 
bean than to the garden or English pea. This family 
of plants is often called The Legumes. 

Cotton and okra belong to another big family, and are 
rather closely related. Of the fruit trees, peaches and 
plums are likewise closely akin : also apples and pears. 

52 



THE BOTANY OF OUR CROPS 53 

Fruit trees closely enough related may be grafted on to 
each other. 

Genus, Species, and Varieties. — While a number of 
plants somewhat alike are said to belong to a family, or 
tribe, these tribes are divided into groups still more closely 
related. Each of these smaller groups is called a genu^. 
The different kinds of clover belong to the genus 
Trifolium^ or three-leaved plants. Each genus is divided 
into still smaller groups whose members are still more 
closely related to each other. p]ach of these groups is 
Ciilled a species. Sorghum and Johnson grass are different 
species of the same genus. Then we have varieties of the 
same plant. Short-limbed cotton and long-limbed cotton 
are different varieties. Different varieties of a plant 
may be said to be as closely related to each other as 
brothers and sisters. (See Appendix for further descrip- 
tion of the plant families.) 

Length of Life. — Plants tliat grow on from year to 
year, like fruit or forest trees, are called perennial plants. 
So are plants that keep coming up from the same roots, 
like Johnson grass and Bermuda grass. Plants like cotton 
and corn, that die, root and branch, each year, and have 
to come up from seed again, are called annuals. It is 
true, cotton is a perennial in the tropics, and lives and 
grows for many years, getting as large as plum trees. 
Certain other plants grow two years and make seed the 
second year and die. These are biennials. Turnips, 
beets, and melilotus, or sweet clover, are biennials. 

Storage of Plant Food. — Biennial plants generally store 
up the first year a supply of rich food in their roots, so 



54 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

they grow very rapidly the second year. Perennials store 
up in their twigs and buds food that causes very rapid 
growth of young leaves the next spring. So all plants 
store food in their seed for the use of the young plants 
until the latter can take root. Irish potatoes may grow 
a foot high from the food in the seed potato. It lias been 
proved that if large pieces of Irish potatoes are planted, 
much better yields are secured than when the seed pota- 
toes are cut into small pieces. That is, the young plants, 
being better fed, get a better start and grow more vigor- 
ously if big pieces of seed are planted. 

Sugar cane, of course, has a large store of sugar and 
other food in the stalk planted. The young plant can 
grow a long time just by feeding on this seed stalk. So 
in the East Indies, where people want time to gather an- 
other crop from the land, and yet want the sugar cane 
early, they start the cane in beds and then transplant the 
mother stalks bearing the young cane when the other 
crop has been removed and the land prepared. To 
lengthen tlie short growing season in the Gulf States, 
cane might be sprouted under glass or cloth and trans- 
planted in the same way. Even a mustard seed and a 
tobacco seed contain some food to start the young plant 
off. 

Plants, if they had intelligence and speecli, would tell 
us they do not store food for us, but for their own off- 
spring. The sap in the sugar maple, sugar cane, and 
sugar beet, that we take to make sugar, is stored there to 
support new plants and new growth ; so of the starch and 
other substances in I'ice, corn, wheat, and barley seed. 



THE BOTANY OF OUR CROPS 



55 



The rich protein compounds in beans, peanuts, and cotton 
seed are primarily to support young plants. In one sense we 
are robbers of the plant kingdom, and must be in order to live. 

Roots, Stems, and Leaves. — Plants have roots to hold 
them upright in the soil and to gather moisture and food 
from the soil. The stems serve to hold the leaves up to 
sun and air. The stems, as you have seen, also contain ; 
little channels through which plant food and water are 
carried from the roots upward to the leaves. Then the 
finished chemical compounds made by the leaves pass 
back into every part of the plant. Tlie leaves, as we 
have seen, give off water, and take in carbonic acid gas. 

Plants as Chemists. — 
By means of the chloro- 
phyll, or green coloring 
matter, and sunlight, the 
leaf is able to make starch 
out of carbon and water. 
No human chemist can do 
this. Then the plant 
readily turns its starch 
into sugar. Cliemists can 
perform this feat, but they 
cannot turn sugar back 
into starch. The plant 
can do this. To the starch 
or sugar the plant makes, 
it adds a little sulphur, 
phosphorus, and nitrogen, 
which come up in the soil Fig. lO. — Fibrous Roots of Corn 




56 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

water, and a compound called protein is made. Chemists 
cannot make this, and without it in our food we could not 
live. Protein will be discussed later under the subject of 
Feeding Animals. 

Kinds of Roots. — Plants are often spoken of as having 
either fibrous or tap roots. Corn and oats and wheat 
have fibrous roots. Cotton has a tap root, and of course 
has many small fibrous roots branching out from this main 
tap root. The smaller roots of plants are the feeding 
roots, and even the smallest roots that can be seen with 
the unaided eye are covered with small hairs that take 
in moisture and food from the soil. 

Length of Roots. — Plant roots grow to a much greater 
length than one would suppose. Most phmts have roots 
longer than the height of the plant. We often see cotton 
or corn injured at a distance of forty yards or more from a 
large green tree. The tree is not shading the crop for 
any great distance, as some people think. The little 
roots of the tree are stealing food and moisture from 
the crop. This injury is greatest in time of drought. It 
has been estimated that if all the roots of a hill of corn 
were placed in a straiglit line, they would reach a mile. 
Plant roots often go many feet deep, but the majority 
of the feeding roots of farm and garden crops will 
nearly always be found in tlie upper six inches of the 
soil. 

Osmosis of Plants. — If a bladder containing strong 
salt water be suspended in a vessel of pure water, the 
pure water will pass througli the bladder rather rapidly, 
and some of the salt water will pass out into the vessel. 



THE BOTANY OF OUR CROPS 



57 



The most rapid movement will be into the bladder toward 
tlie strong solution. The mixing of liquids through a 
membrane like this is called the principle of osmosis. 
This is the way in which plant roots take in food and 
water from the soil. Water containing dissolved salts is 
inside the plant, and water contain- 
ing salts is also about the roots in 
tlie soil. As the leaves of the plant 
evaporate water, the liquid inside 
becomes stronger than that outside. 
Hence the weaker liquid outside be- 
gins to flow through the cell walls 
of the roots into the plant and the 
liquid inside passes out less rapidly. 
As water continues to evaporate from 
the leaves, the stronger solution will 
be in the leaves and the weaker one 
in the roots where the soil water is 
entering. Hence the weaker solu- 
tions move upward from cell to cell. 
Iliis, at least, partially accounts for 
the movement of sap in plants. 

Beans when soaked swell up until 
they burst. This is due to the prin- 
ciple of osmosis. The weaker liquid 
flows through the skin of the bean. A shriveled piece of 
Irish potato will take in water when soaked and become 
})lump. But if soaked in strong salt water, the potato 
will become still more shriveled, because the juices of the 
})()tato flow outward to the strong solution. 




Fia. 17. — Showino 
Osmosis 



68 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 




Fig. 18. — Flower of the Apple 



To show the pressure of the flow of sap, cut a small 

grapevine and fit a rubber tube over it and put a glass 

tube in the other end of the 
rubber tube. The pressure 
will raise water in the glass 
tube many feet high. 

Fertilization of Plants. — 
Plants, in order to make seed, 
have flowers. A perfect flower 
has stamens producing a little 
yellow powder called pollen, 

and a pistil containing the little seed. In order to become 

fertile and make good seed, some of the pollen must 

reach the little seed. See Figure 19 for the names of the 

different parts of the 

flower. One part of the 

corn flower is represented 

by the shoot and silks, 

the other part by the 

tassel. As is well known, 

no grain is made unless 

the pollen of the tassel 

falls on the silk of the 

corn. The ears of corn 

fill much better in a large 

field than where there are 

only a few stalks. In the 

latter case, the pollen is blown off and does not reach the 

silks. Corn of different varieties will sometimes mix 

even when the fields are some distance apart ; this is 




Fig. 19. — Lily of the Valley, show- 
ing SIX Stamens and the Pistil 
IN the center 



THE BOTANY OF OUR CROPS 

due to the fact that the pollen is blown from one field 
to the other. In order to be sure of effecting the most 
rapid improvement by selecting seed corn, the shoots of 
the desirable kind should be covered with paper bags 
before the silks appear, and then the silks should be 
dusted artificially with tlie pollen from the same stalk, 
or an equally desirable one. 

Still other plants have flowers containing pistils on one 
plant and the flowers containing the stamens on another. 
Often two varieties of strawberries must be planted close 
together on this account. Date palms had been growing 
on the Texas coast for a long time and had borne no fruit. 
It was supposed they would not bear in this climate. 
Finally, some one brought flowers from palms growing in 
Mexico and fertilized those on the Texas trees, and as fine 
dates as could be desired were produced. 

Work of Insects. — Insects aid in carrying pollen and 
fertilizing flowers. When cucumbers are grown in hot- 
houses in winter, it has been found that fertilization can- 
not be done so well by hand, and bees have been introduced 
into the hothouses for the purpose. The bee or other 
insect gets pollen on its body and carries it to the next 
flower visited. The showy colors and the sweet perfume 
of flowers, it is said, are nature's ways of attracting insect 
visitors to the flowers. In the Philippine Islands and 
Borneo, wherever a few flowers are cultivated, sticks are 
stuck up with eggshells put on top of them, often giving 
the appearance of numerous flowers. The people say that 
the eggshells make the flowers grow better. Whether 
this is a useless notion, or whetlier the eggshells may 



60 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

lielp attract the few insects that visit flowers there, the 
writer lias often wondered. 

Crossing and Hybridizing. — Phuits of different varie- 
ties may be crossed by fertilizing the flowers of one vari- 
ety with the pollen of another. Plants of different species 
may often be crossed, and the resulting plant is called a 
hybrid. Crossing and hybridizing sometimes produce 
superior plants, but the chances are that the new plants 
will be no better than the originals. As a rule the prac- 
tical farmer and gardener had best leave crossing and 
hybridizing on a large scale to the professional plant 
breeders. To every hybrid or cross that is superior to 
the parent plants, there are hundreds that are inferior. 



QUESTIONS 

What is the name of the science that describes plants? How are 
plants classified? Name a near relative of sorghum. Name a dis- 
tant relative of corn. Name a relative of the cowpea and one of 
cotton. Can plants not related to each other be grafted together? 
Are the plants in a species or in a genus more closely related ? What 
is an annual plant? What is a perennial and what is a biennial 
plant ? What provision is made by all plants in the fall for rapid 
growth next spring? What is the reason that big pieces of Irish 
potatoes will yield more when planted than small pieces will? 
What does the sugar-cane plant feed on when young? In what 
way do we rob plants? Of what use are roots to plants? Of 
what use are stems and leaves? Can chemists make sugar out 
of starch, and can they make starch out of sugar? Caii plants 
do these things? What other compound in plants is necessary for 
animal life? Can human chemists make this compound? What 
two kinds of roots do plants have? Give exani])les of plants 
that have both kinds of roots. How long are the roots of a 
large tree? Explain the injury a tree will do to a crop in time of 



THE BOTANY OF OUR CROPS 61 

drought. How deep do plant roots feed? Explain the principle of 
Osmosis, or the mixing of liquids through a membrane. Exphiin 
how the principle of Osmosis enables plants to get food from the soil. 
What will happen if a shriveled Irish potato is soaked in salt water? 
What is a flower? What are the principal parts of a flower ? Where 
are the different parts of the Indian corn flower situated? What 
would happen if all the tassels of corn were cut off? If you wish to 
be sure that an ear of corn would not mix with other corn, what 
would you do? Why do people sometimes have to plant two kinds of 
strawberries near each other? Why would the date palm not bear 
fruit in Texas, and what was done to make it fruitful ? Of what use 
are insects to plants? Of what use are the pretty colors of flowers? 
What do we mean by "crossing" plants? 

Experiment. — Plant on the farm at home one row of corn from 
nubbins and a row from fine ears, and see if there is a great differ- 
ence in yield. Report next session for the benefit of the school. 

Plant at the proper season at home a few single eyes of Irish 
potatoes, cutting each eye off with a very small, thin piece of potato. 
Then plant pieces as big as walnuts, with all eyes cut out but one on 
each piece. Note how much better plants the latter will make. Make 
report next session. 

Watch a few stalks of corn growing in garden, and if you wish 
take out all the tassels when they first ap]')ear. Note that few grains 
or none at all will be made. 



CHAPTER X 

GRAFTING AND BUDDING 

Many plants do not produce offspring like themselves 
when their seed are planted. This is true of peaches, 
apples, plums, pecans, and other fruit-bearing trees. You 
may plaut a seed from ever so fine a peach, and you are 
nearly certain to get a tree bearing inferior fruit. If yon 
plant the finest paper-shell pecan, the chances are you 
will get a small, hard nut. But if a bud or graft be 
taken from a good kind of tree and made to live and grow 
on a stock of any kind, it will ahvays bear fruit like the 
tree from which it was taken. 

Budding. — Figure 20 shows the common metliod of 
budding. Budding must be done in summer when the 
bark slips readily. Peaches, plums, and cherries are 
generally budded rather than grafted. Young seedling 
trees are grown in large numbers, and buds of desir- 
able kinds put under the bark of the seedling plant 
near the ground. In the Southern States peaches are 
often budded in June and September. When the June 
bud is found to live, the top of the stock is broken 
above the bud and allowed to remain attached until 
the bud begins to grow vigorously ; the broken top is 
then entirely cut off, and the new bud makes the tree. 
The tops of the stocks budded in September are not cut 

62 



GRAFTING AND BUDDING 



63 



away until the following spring. The Japanese per- 
simmon may be budded into seedlings of the common 
persimmon grown in the same way as peach seedlings. 

Figure 21 shows the ring method of budding pecans 
and oranges commonly practiced in the South. Buds of 
the finest kinds of pecans may be inserted in pecan seed- 
lings or hickories. If the hickory or pecan trees on which 
the grafting is to be done are old, the limbs and tops 




Fig. 20. — Steps in Budding 
a. Cuts in Stock d. Bud Inserted 

6. Bark Slipped Away e. Bark Wrapped 

c. Bud /. Bud making New Tree 



should be cut off in the winter so that a new growth will 
be put forth. Several buds are inserted in the new wood 
the following summer, and then fine kinds of pecans will 
be produced in two or three years (see Fig. 24). 
Satsuma orange buds are grafted into a hardy, worth- 
less orange, called the trifoliata, grown from seed. As 
the sap ceases to flow vigorously in this trifoliata stock 
in the fall, the trees become so nearly dormant that they 
are not much affected by cold. Hence we have a hardy 



64 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



and valuable orange for South Texas, Louisiana, and 
other Southern States, where the orange industry is one 

of great promise and 
is already assuming 




commercial 
tions. 
Grafting. 



propor- 

- Apples 
and pears are more 
often grafted than 
budded. Seeds are 
planted and many 
young plants pro- 
duced. These form 
the stock on which 
cuttings, or scions of 
good varieties, are 
grafted. Figure 22 
s h o \v s different 
methods of grafting. 
Grafting is generally 
done in winter and 
very early spring. 
The main caution to 
be observed is to see 
that the inner bark 
of the stock and scion exactly join for at least a part of 
the way around, so that the sap can flow back and forth. 

Different species of plants may be grafted or budded 
on each other, as apples, pears, and quinces. This is also 
true of cherries, peaches, and plums, and with pecans and 



ING BUDDIN<J FOK OrANGKS AND 

Pecans 



GRAFTING AND BUDDING 



65 



hickories. Better results are often secured when 
the stock and the scion are of the same species. 





Fig. 22. — Grafting 
a. Sciou ; b. Stock 




Whip 
Graft 



Many people think peaches and 
apples can be grafted or budded on 
each other. That is not true. 
Plants must be rather closely related 
to be grafted and budded together. 
In almost every neighborhood 
there are men who are skilled in budding and 
grafting. It is suggested that each pupil 
seek an opportunity to witness the art of 
budding and grafting, and by a little prac- 
tice, learn to do it. 

Cuttings and Layering. — It is often not 
necessary to bud or graft in order to propa- 
Depth to ^ate and multiply plants. Many plant cut- 

PLANT Fig ^ , -, . r 1,1 -1 

Cutting tings simply stuck down m tavorabie sou 



Fig. 23. - The 
Proper 



m 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



will live and grow. Figs are fairly easily multiplied 
in this way by planting cuttings in winter or early spring. 

The limbs of other 



M 




Fig. 24. 



}) 1 a n t s m ay be 
brought down to the 
ground and covered, 
and when they take 
root, they may be 
set out as any other 
plant. This is called 
layering. Grapes are 
often propagated in 
this way. 

In the tropics most 
plants grow from 
cuttings set in the 
early part of the 
wet season. There 
I - %«^ i^ V^\ ^ ^^^^ ^^^^y^ often see a 
rt^^k ' V ^^^^v^s- ^^»^1 <^f mw^ tied to a 
limb which has been 
cut half in two, or 
liad the bark cut. 
This is done to en- 
courage rooting at 
Tliis method is about the same as ordinary 



Old Pecan Tree growing Paper- 
shell Buds 



that point, 
layering. 

Runners. — Many plants are multiplied by root stocks 
or runners. The blackberries and raspberries put up 
numerous plants from the roots. They are propagated 



GRAFTING AND BUDDING 67 

by planting pieces of roots. Strawberries send out run- 
ners that root and make new plants. Bermuda grass, 
in tliis climate, is propagated from the trailing stems that 
root at each joint. It may also be produced from seed 
got from the tropics. Johnson grass, one of our most 
dreaded pests, grows from seed and from large, flesh}^, 
jointed underground stems, usnally called roots. 

QUESTIONS 

Suppose you plant the seed of line peaches, will they always pro- 
duce trees having fine fruit? What is necessary, then, in order to re- 
produce fine peach trees? AVhat other fruits will not come true from 
.seed? What two methods do we have of multiplying such fruits? 
Describe budding. Describe different methods of grafting. How 
are oranges propagated in the Gulf States? Do we graft or bud 
apples and pears? At what time of year is budding done? What 
time of year is grafting done? How are figs propagated? How are 
grapes propagated ? How do we propagate strawberries, blackberries, 
and raspberries? 

Experiment. — Practice grafting and budding and see what success 
you liave. 



CHAPTER XI 

SEED SELECTION 

People appear to believe in selecting the best seed for 
planting and the best animals for breeding. Yet, as a 
rule, but a half-hearted effort is made, especially in regard 
to seed selection. It is true, a great deal of money has 
been spent for seed which are supposed to represent 
years of careful selection, and which are claimed to have 
a producing power two or three times as great as tlie 
seed usually planted. These purchases have generally 
been disappointing ; the seed in many cases have proved 
to be not so good as some of those planted for years in 
the purchasers' neighborhood. 

Do Seed run Out ? — It is not true, certainly with most 
crops, that seed '' run out," and that new seed from a 
distance must be brought in. In fact, it has been 
generally found that seed of a certain variety of crop 
grown in any locality will be better for that locality 
than those brought in from a distance. Seed grown in a 
localit}^ for a number of years go through a process of 
adaptation and natural selection, better suiting the crop 
to its conditions. Of course the farmer can hasten this 
adaptation by intelligent artificial selection of planting 
seed. In this way corn has been developed to grow 
farther north, wheat to suit certain sections and give 

68 



SEED SELEC'i'IOX 



69 



>^^ 



better yields; cotton is being' developetl to make fair 
crops ahead of the boll weevil, etc. Other cru[)s have 
been adapted to i-esist disease. In a measure, also, 
varieties of crops have been produced to suit diffei-ent 
types of soil, to vary in their fertilizer requirements, 
resistance to excessiye wet or dry weather, etc. 

Plants resemble Parents. — In a general sense, a plant 
is like its parents. Jt is not true, howeyer, that seed from 
a nearly perfect ear of corn will, of necessity, produce only 
stalks haying perfect ears. A 
fine ear of corn may have been 
fertilized (pollenized) by one 
bearing a little nubbin. The 
nubbin may have been pollenized 
by the stalk having the fine eai-. 
In that case the nubbin would 
make as good seed as the fine 
ear, if the grains are as sound 
and individuall}" as large. Even if the fine ear is crossed 
with another stalk having a fine ear, and the nubbin witli 
a stalk having a nubbin, it is not at all likeh^ that tlie 
seed will be so widely different in productive power 
when planted as the parent ])lants were. Eacli grain 
has in it not only the strain of its immediate parents, 
l)ut of a hundred generations of })arents. One or two 
generations of nubbins, or even almost barren stalks 
as ancestors of one parent, caused by poor soil, poor 
culture, or dronght, will not be likely seriously to reduce 
tlie yield when planted, if good conditions are again 
provided. 




Fig. 25. — Testing Seed 



70 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

The Farmer his Own Seedsman. — As far as possible 
eveiy farmer should select liis seed in his own neighbor- 
hood or on his own farm. He should select seed witli 
a view of obtaining a size and type of plant that suits tlie 
soil and seasons of his locality. It is higlily probable that 
all the desirable qualities cannot be combined in any one 
type of cotton, for example. We shonld like earliness, 
hardiness, prolificness, high per cent of lint, large bolls, 
and long staple. It is probable that some of these quali- 
ties are antagonistic to each other, and consequently all 
of them can never be fully attained in one variety. lUit 
large bolls, earliness, and at least fair prolificness, can be 
obtained in short staple cotton. This has been proved 
many times. 

Sound, Heavy Seed. — I'he farmer should see to it that 
only sound, heavy seed are saved. The Department of 
Agriculture at Washington has devised a little machine 
to separate light cotton seed from heavy, plump seed. 
The latter, in a planting test, gave a much better yield 
than unseparated seed. Good stands of all crops are 
necessary in order to make good yields. Seed corn in 
the corn-growing states is often unsound, and the innn' 
stand resulting cuts off the yield several bushels })er 
acre. Of course good, sound, heavy seed of all kinds 
should be insisted on when buying. As all seed lose 
their vitality with age, new seed should be demanded. 
Seed bought should be subjected to a germination test. 
That is, one hundred average seed should be kept under a 
moist cloth, or in moist sand, at a temperature suitable to 
germination, to see how many are good. 



SEED SELECTION 



71 



Weed Seeds. — In buying alfalfa, clover, wheat, oats, 
and many other seeds, one should be on his guard against 
introducing^ the seed of noxious weeds. In examinino- 
many sam})les of alfalfa seed brought into Texas, the 
Experiment Station has found large percentages of dod- 
der, Russian thistle, dock, and other exceedingly ]>ad 




Fig. 2G. — ^Pure and Impure Alfalfa Seed, Magnified 

weeds. Oats and wheat are very likely to carry Johnson- 
grass seed, when grown in sections where that grass 
exists. It would be advisable to have a microscopic 
examination made of all seed that are likely to have 
mixed with them the seeds of harmful weeds. No doubt 
the experiment stations and agricultural colleges of all 
the states will do this work free of charge. 

Watching for Sports. — The farmer, by careful watching 
for just the type of plant wanted, and selecting, keeping 
pure, and planting, can accomplish much more than by 



72 ' ELEMExNTS OF AGRICULTURE 

artiticially stimulating big yields and depending on these 
seed to make big yields. A new type of plant is called 
a sport. Sports do not alwa3^s breed true, but they often 
do, and thus produce new varieties. An extraordinary 
crop secured by high fertilizing, good seasons, etc., will 
not be likely to afford better seed than a crop which has 
made a poor yield on account of unfavorable conditions. 
The large yields of many of the high-priced seed which 
are sold are due rather to liigh fertilizing than to special 
merit in the seed. 

Dr. de Vries and Dr. Nillson, quite noted European 
plant breeders, pronounced the plan of the German plant 
breeders a failure. The German plan is to select a large 
amount of seed from the whole of a good crop and plant 
these together. Dr. de Vries and Dr. Nillson watch for a 
single plant differing from the others and of a desired 
kind, called a sport, tlien isolate it and multiply from it. 
In this way they chiim to have accomplished certain and 
excellent results. 

All the evidence points to the fact that if there is any 
variety which is best for a given locality, it will not be 
the best for all localities growing this crop. With a long 
season of growth and plenty of rain, a late-maturing kind 
of corn will outyield an early kind. But for a northern 
latitude, or the dry western climate, we should hardly 
recommend the large-stalked, late kinds of corn. It is 
also evident that the same kind of cotton does not do 
equally well over any hirge extent of country. 

Limits to Improvement. — It seems reasonable that 
crops that have been higlily improved already cannot be 



SEED SELECTIOX 78 

improved so rapidly in future as in the past. Tliat is, a 
limit can be reached somewhere beyond which improve- 
ment cannot go on. It is said the sugar beet has had its 
sugar content doubled since Napoleon began its improve- 
ment as a means of raising revenue for his wars. Whetlier 
this is true, or part of the improvement actually came 
from better liandling and later ripening of tlie beets and 
better methods in tlie factin-ies, it is immaterial. It 
is true, liowever, that the sugar content of tlie beets 
grown in Germany, the greatest sugar-making country 
on earth, has not increased on an average so much as 
one per cent on the Aveight of the beets in nearly forty 
years. 

Java, next to Hawaii the jnost intensive cane-suo-;ir 
country in the world, was forced to give up its sweetest 
cane and grow a vigorous, hardy kind, able to resist 
certain cane diseases. The same country once grew an 
immense quantity of as fine coffee as was ever known. 
Disease came and entirely destroyed the industry, which 
is now being built up again, with an inferior but liardy 
Ivind of tiee, able to resist the disease. 

Less hardiness and less resistance to disease seem gener- 
ally to follow improvement in other directions. Whether 
this evident tendency can be guarded against and disease 
resistance combined with improvement in yield and quality 
of product, are questions as yet unknown. Such a com- 
bination has not been attained in improved live stock, and 
certainly has not in most cases witli improved plants. 
Hopkins, of Illinois, has bred corn to contain some 45 per 
cent more protein tlian average corn. Tn doing so. he 



74 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

appears to have reduced tlie size of ears, and presumably 
the yiehl of corn, about 25 per cent. 

Potatoes and Cane. — Phmting small sweet potatoes and 
Irish potatoes is a general practice in some sections, and 
has been for generations, but potatoes show no marked 
tendency to become smaller. It is true that planting 
small Irish potatoes, where they are cut to two eyes, will 
result in smaller yields than larger potatoes cut to two 
eyes. You have seen why this is so. When the same 
sized pieces are cut from small potatoes as are cut from 
large potatoes, there will be more eyes in the pieces 
cut from the smaller potatoes, and with some varieties 
several of these eyes come up, resulting in too many 
plants, and consequently a larger proportion of small 
potatoes. 

Above the Louisiana sugar belt proper the practice 
of sirup makers has been for years to save for planting 
the small, worthless stalks of cane. In the tropics the 
practice has been for ages to plant the immature, worth- 
less tops. In neither case has any deterioration in the 
cane occurred. In the tropics much experimental work 
has been done to find the effects of planting poor 
stalks and tops, but no change one way or the other has 
been found. 

In the case of sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, and cane, 
we plant parts of the old plants just as in budding and 
grafting. In each of tliem real seed may be grown, and 
are grown and planted. When sugar cane grows a year 
or more in the tropics, it makes a head of fine feathery 
seed. These are planted and a little, weak stalk of cane 



SEED SELECTION 



75 



is produced. This stalk is planted and cane is produced 
in the usual way, but there is never any telling what kind 
of cane it will be. It is never likely to resemble the par- 
ent, and is entirely likely to be different from any other 
variety of cane ever produced. You are more likely to get 




Fig. 27. — New Mexico Date Palm 



from the seed of red cane either white, green, striped, or 
even black cane, than red cane. Only one in thousands 
of the kinds produced in this way has been found to have 
better qualities than well-known kinds. Irish potatoes 
and sweet potatoes are said to show^ these same variations 
when grown from real seed. 

Other Seed -producing Plants. — With plants that cross 



76 ELEMENTS OF AOKICULTUKE 

])()llenize, variation is iiincli more likely to occur. Luther 
Jiurbank plants a vast number of seeds of eacli kind, and 
Avatches for sports. By growing this sport and fixing 
the type by preventing cross fertilizing, he obtains the 
new variety. 

Rapidity of Improvement. — Plants are not so rapidly 
and certainly improved by usual methods of selection and 
breeding as some people l)elieve. Of the one hundred 
or more so-called varieties of cotton tested at several 
Southern experiment stations, no one kind has often 
made the best return two years in succession at the same 
station. No one kind tliat yielded best for early plantiaig 
lias often yielded best for late planting. No one kind 
has often made best returns the same year at any two 
stations. Frequently the variety that yields most on 
one kind of land yields least on another kind. If we 
take averages, the kinds known to be old have yielded 
nearly as well as those which are claimed to have been 
improved in recent years. 

QTE'^TIOXS 

AVhat are comparative merits of home grown seed and seed brought 
from a distance? What about seed "running out"? What have 
experiment stations found out about the best variety of cotton ? How 
about seed from a croj) that was poor on account of drought? Can 
seed be improved by merely fertilizing the crops ? Tell about the 
experience in planting sugar cane and potatoes. What is a '-sport "? 
How are new varieties produced? Can all desirable qualities be 
combined in one variety of plant? What soit of corn should be 
selected for a dry country ? How are seed tested? What undesirable 
])lants are likely to be introduced in seed? To what extent do you 
think we can go on improving oni- crops? 



SEED SELECTTON 77 

Experiment. — Use a niagiiifying- glass and examine seed of alfalfa, 
turnip, and other small seed for weed seed, rotten seed, etc. Make 
germination tests at proper season with different seed. You may 
have heard the old saying that wheat turns to cheat. Suppose you 
get some clieat seed and some pure wheat seed and plant each sepa- 
rately in boxes. See if each does not make its own kind. You can 
do these things at school. 



CHAPTER XII 

IMPROVING THE LAND 

The rapidity with which lands wash and wear lias al- 
ready been mentioned. The humus of Southern soils has 
been found to decrease much faster than in northern lands. 
The same open winters and heavy rainfall that cause the 
Avaste of humus and soluble plant food also cause the soil 
of much of the rolling Soutliern lands to wasli off into the 
valleys and creeks, leaving red gullies and poor subsoil. 

Poor Land Unprofitable. — The question of improving 
tlie soil is the great question of the farm. If one-fourth of 
a bale of cotton to the acre pays all expenses of its pro- 
duction, including land rent, labor of man and team, seed, 
gathering, ginning, marketing, etc., then a half bale to the 
acre will pay over twelve dollars an acre net profit when 
lint sells at ten cents a pound and seed at -f 20 a ton. 
While a quarter of a bale makes no net profit, a half bale 
to the acre makes a net profit as large as il20, drawing 
ten per cent interest. If fifteen bushels of corn to the 
acre pays all expenses, then thirty bushels at fifty cents a 
bushel will pay a net profit of about $7.50. Poor, worn 
land producing small crops is very poor property ; but 
good land producing large crops pays l)etter than almost 
any other kind of investment. 

Land Easy to Improve. — The buildiug up of the soil is 
tlie surest and quickest way to make large and profitable 



IMPROVING THE LAND 79 

crops. It is not difficult or expensive to improve land 
wiiicli produces a quarter bale so that it will make a half 
bale or even a bale of cotton to the acre. Much of the 
thin land of the South which now yields only fifteen 
bushels of corn or less to the acre could be easily made to 
yield thirt}^ bushels or more. It is a general fact that the 
thin, poor lands are the easiest lands to improve. 

Amount of Plant Food. — If even the poorest land is 
analyzed and calculations made of the amount of phos- 
})horic acid, nitrogen, and potash contained in a depth 
of three or four feet, enough plant food is found to sup- 
port several hundred, or perhaps a thousand, big crops. 
But such land ceases to produce w^ell because crops and 
the leaching and washing of the rains have taken aw^ay 
most of the soluble, or available, plant food. Perhaps 
almost all the humus has been exhausted and the land is 
no longer dark in color, i)orous, and fresh, as it was when' 
it was new. A¥ith most of the humus gone, germ life 
has little to feed upon, and germs no doubt play an im- 
portant part in dissolving plant food and making it fit for 
plant use. 

Nature enriches Land. — If this poor land is left uncul- 
tivated, grass and weeds and ])riers and bushes soon take 
possession of it. These hardy plants thread the soil and 
subsoil with their roots, wdiich can extract food out of the 
l^oorest land. If protected from fire these plants make a 
sliade and a soft covering for the land. When they die 
they decay and form humus. The roots decay and leave 
channels for air and water to pass through the soil. The 
sliade and humus encourage germ life, which thrives and 



80 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

multiplies. Rotting vegetable matter also feeds and shel- 
ters innumerable earthworms and other low forms of ani- 
mal life that burrow and eat and grind and pulverize the 
soil. By a few years of such treatment, nature makes this 
land just as fresh and productive as it ever was. 

With a crop of peas, velvet beans, or peanuts, or a coat 
of barnyard manure now and then, land should retain 
its freshness and prodnctiveness. By such management 
it will remain fresh and open and porous ; the air can 
enter ; it will hold moisture better ; germ life will thrive, 
and all these things help to dissolve plant food in the 
soil for the use of crops. 

Physical and Chemical Improvement. — Improvement in 
land may be effected by adding chemical plant food in the 
form of concentrated fertilizer, or by making some physi- 
cal change in the soil. Plowing or draining would be 
a physical improvement. Adding sand to a tight, heavy 
soil, if it could be done profitably, would often help it, and 
yet the sand may have no plant food. Coarse manure 
contains plant food, but one of its chief uses is to open 
up the land or otherwise put it in better physical con- 
dition. It adds vegetable matter, or humus, to the soil, 
makes it drain better, and lets the air enter. It also 
makes a coarse, sandy soil less porous, and causes it to 
hold water better. A good supply of humus is the corner- 
stone of soil improvement, particularly for the w^orn up- 
lands of' the humid part of the South. 

Terracing. — To prevent rolling lands from washing, a 
very successful plan followed in the South Central and 
Southeastern States is to lay off with a cheap leveling in- 



IMPROVING THE LAND 



81 



strument lines around the hillside on a dead level. A 
sharp bed is thrown up on these lines with a turn plow 







Fig. 28. — Terraced Land 



and weeds and grass are allowed to grow on 
lines are generally run 
so that one will be 
three perpendicular feet 
higher than the one 
next to it down the 
hill. Of course, the 
lines will be closer to- 
gether on steep land 
than on gently rolling 
land, and they will be 
closer together at some 
points than at other 
points. Rows are gen 
erally laid off parallel 
to each of two terraces, 
beffinnins:, say, above ,, 
one and laying off until on Terracp:d 



them. These 




82 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

iialfway to the next terrace up the hill at the point where 
the two terraces are nearest together. Then begin 
below this next terrace and make rows till this halfwa}' 
point is reached. Last of all the short rows are filled 
in. Tliis scheme enables each row as nearly as possible 

,iL to take care of its own 

f.\V-.-.%<f<,Y^ ,,>>j(^:'-'- :'■■■:■■. water, while whatever water 

^-\^:<::f~\'}'.\\}^^^::r.\\\:\::'^^^ breaks ovcr the rows soon 

'H^S:;y;;-\-;:^v;V-::^f^-::V^ comes to a terrace line 

^^^^^^^::{-}!:'::^-:^^'[ii^ covered with weeds and 

<«<««<<^ grass. Here the speed of 

Fig. 30. — Terraced Land and Rows , j • i i i i 

the water is checked, and 

whatever sediment it carried is deposited. In a few years 
the old terrace lines are richer than the other land. These 
are plowed np and the terraces made along new level lines. 
Figures 28 and 30 will make clear the description of this 
plan for preventing washing. 

Drainage. — There is a great deal of land in all humid 
sections that is unproductive because of poor drainage. 




Fig. 31. — Best Shape for an Open Ditch 

We have seen that too much water makes the land cold, 
shuts out air, prevents the growtli of microscopic life, etc. 
Straightening channels of small creeks, clearing out ob- 
structions, and making a few simple, open ditches will often 
make much excellent creek bottom land very productive. 
Any open ditch or channel for water to flow in sliould 



IMPROVING THE LAND 83 

be made widely V-sliaped (Fig. 31). Such a channel will 
always clean itself out much better than a wide-bottomed 
ditch, and will not be liable to cave and fill up. Often by 
merely starting such a channel with a plow and replowing 
after heavy rains, one can make excellent drainage chan- 
nels at trifling expense. 

Draining Marsh and Creek Lands. — Near the seacoast 
there are immense bodies of marsh land too flat to be 
drained in such a way. This land needs to be surrounded 
with low levees with channels cut through them, and to 
have the water pumped out over the levees. A trifling 
amount of pumping will permanently drain such lands 
and make them highly valuable. The drainage canals 
might be made the very best and cheapest means of trans- 
portation. Holland has hundreds of square miles re- 
claimed even from the sea at a cost of perhaps over one 
hundred dollars an acre. Even rivers are pumped out 
over the great levees, or dikes. This land is below sea 
level and is cut here and there with drainage canals. The 
people are said to go to market in boats in summer and 
on skates in Avinter. 

There are also large bodies of fine creek bottom land 
that could be drained by dredging out straight channels 
for some miles. As this is usually too large an under- 
taking for one mcin, the land to be reclaimed should be 
organized into a drainage district and taxed or bonded to 
get money to make the improvement. 

Tile Draining. — A great deal of land in the Northern 
and Central States is drained with tile, or burned clay 
pipes. These pipes are laid end to end in ditches dug 



84 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 






':-^-^. 



:>A. 



at suitable distances, and covered over. This makes an 
excellent and permanent system of drainage. Tile drains 
do not draw water from the land any better than open 

r===— ==^== — -=^ ditch(is of equal depth ; but they 
' '^ ' ^ ^ -^j^^^ ^ ] are never in the way of teams or 
L^ . _^ "- - r'.Miiiiiij" i> iiiihil 

machinery, they cause no loss of 
land, and they never fill up 
when well laid. When tiles are 
once laid, the expense is over, 
but open ditches have to be 
worked on every year. 

In the Gulf States there has 
been almost no tile drainage, 
because land has been cheaj) and 
tiling has been costly. Perhaps 
the cost of tiling an acre would 
buy two acres that do not need 
tile. Moreover, the seasons are 
long, and we can generally wait 
for the excess of water to dry 
off, and yet have time to make 
a crop. Figure 32 will show the 
method of draining with tiling. 

Fig. 32.-TILK Draining ^^ ^^^, ^^^^^^^ increase in value 

and we come to want to use our whole season in maturing 
two or more crops, tiling will likely come into favor. 

In some places, brush, poles, rocks, etc., have been put 
into ditches and covered over so as to make cheap under- 
drains. 




IMPROVING THE LAND 



QUESTIONS 

Why do Southern lands wear out more rapidly than Northern 
lands? AVhy do Eastern lands exhaust faster than Western lands? 
Why is good land of such great importance to the farmer? What 
lands are generally most easily improved? Suppose exhausted land 
grows up in weeds, grass, and briers, will it become productive again ? 
Sliould land thus growing up be burned off, or should the growth be 
allowed to rot? What can we do to improve poor land faster than 
turning it out? Besides growing crops on land to improve it, what 
can we add to it? Give an example of physical improvement and 
chemical improvement of land. Describe the plan used in the South- 
ern States to prevent hilly or rolling land from washing into gullies. 
What can be done to make creek bottoms productive? What shape 
should an open ditch have to be most serviceable ? What can be done 
to make large areas of flat marsh land productive ? What country has 
reclaimed from the sea a great amount of land ? How do people go 
to market in that country? Describe tile drainage. Why have the 
Southern people not used much tiling ? 

Observation. — Observe how much more productive old fencerows 
and old building sites are than land regularly cultivated. Observe 
liow much, better crops are grown this year on land that grew peas 
last year. Note how much better the crop often is near a ditch 
where drainage is good than farther away where the land is not so 
well drained. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ROTATION OF CROPS 

English Rotation. — In England, clover, turnips, beans, 
and wheat follow each other in regular order, and consti- 
tute a five-year rotation. The lands of Great Britain were 
once so poor that only about three bushels of wheat were 
raised for each bushel planted. While invading France, the 
people learned the value of such crops as clover, turnips, 
and beans. By rotation of crops, bone fertilizers, and 
stock feeding, they have built up the land till it makes 
over twice as much wheat to the acre as the land in the 
United States. 

A Southern Rotation. — If an East Texas farmer plants 
on a held cotton one year, corn and peas the next year, 
and oats followed by peas the third year, he not only has 
an excellent three-year rotation, but grows five crops in 
the three years — two of them restorative crops. Where 
cotton can be matured and gathered early, it might be a 
good plan to have the oats follow the cotton. Corn and 
peas leave the land very dry, and oats come up much bet- 
ter if sown on land that has been well worked in cotton. 
It might be well to sow oats after one of the pickings and 
cover them Avith a cultivator run between the rows. 

Different crops do not require different elements of 
plant food. They all require the same elements, but they 

80 



ROTATION OF CROPS 



87 



use them in different proportions. Therefore, one kind 
of crop may temporarily exhaust the soil of one element, 
and cease to grow well, while another crop can still do 
well. But the greatest benefit of this, or any other rota- 
tion, arises from the restorative crops grown, and the 




CowPEAs AND Sweet Sou(iHiM 



great amounts of nitrogen the bacteria enable them to 
get from the air. 

Cotton Every Year. — The constant planting of land to 
cotton rapidly exhausts the humus of the soil, because if 
cotton is cultivated close and clean, there is little in the way 
of grass, weeds, and trash left to rot on the land. For the 
same reason cotton land washes badly. A corn and pea 
crop, followed by an oat and pea crop, will build up the 



88 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



land rapidly ; for these crops leave stalks, stubble, and 
vines, which, when plowed under, rot and make humus, 
and supply plant food. 

A good system of rotation also affords an opportunity 
to use commercial fertilizers most profitably, if the land 
is of a kind that responds to fertilizing. 




Fig. 34. — Hogs grazing Cowpeas 



Fertilizing Restorative Crops. — Commercial fertilizers 
have their best effects Avhere there is plenty of humus. 
A pea crop does not need nitrogen in its fertilizer, as it 
gets nitrogen from the air. It will seldom need potash. 
So it can be fertilized cheaply with acid phosphate, which 
supplies only phosphoric acid. The 5aeld of pea vines 
will often be doubled by this cheap fertilizing, and conse- 



ROTATION OF CROPS 89 

queiith^ the nitrogen the peas get from the air will be 
di)ubled, and the good effects on the land will be greatly 
increased. Since land once well enriched with pea vines 
needs only acid phosphate for corn and cotton, all the 
fertilizing can be cheaply done. 

The teacher and the pnpil are referred to bulletins of 
the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia Experiment Sta- 
tions, which give the results of many years of work with 
this three-year rotation in connection with commercial 
fertilizers. In each state very poor land was soon built 
up so that it produced a bale of cotton to the acre, and 
other crops in the same proportion. 

Dividing the Farm. — To follow such a rotation, a farm 
should be divided into three parts, having one third in 
each crop each year. This plan would better distribute the 
labor of men and teams over the season. It would afford 
so much corn, peavine hay, oats, etc., to feed on, that 
more stock could be kept and more manure saved, — both 
of which would be helpful in further building up the land. 

It would make no particular difference if cotton now and 
then should be grown two years in succession on a field, 
or if oats should be left out once in a while. Other crops 
might be substituted for some of those mentioned. One 
need not follow absolutely any particular plan of rotation. 
Some lands are not equally well suited to all these crops, 
but grow one particularly well. Such lands may well be 
used for one crop and fertilized, if need be, to keep up 
their fertility. Then certain land for orchards, gardens, 
and for other special purposes could be set aside, and the 
rest of the land could be used for crops in rotation. 



90 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

Other Rotations. — Rotations may be cliangecl to suit 
the crops, and to some extent the markets. In the lime 
lands, alfalfa should be a particularly valuable crop. 
Once planted, it would be profitable as long as a good 
stand holds out, maybe five or six years. The land could 
be used for alfalfa so long, and then planted in cotton and 
corn five or six years. In some sections wheat may be 
substituted for oats in the rotation. 

Rice land would be greatly benefited if, in off years, 
when the planter is waiting to get rid of red rice, the 
land could be drained and grown in cowpeas or other 
restorative crops. The sugar planter generally rotates 
his cane land with corn and peas. In West Texas, small 
grain should be followed with cowpeas the same season, 
provided cotton, corn, kafir, milo, or sorghum is to grow 
on the land next season. The land should catch enough 
rain and snow, especially if plowed and harrowed in early 
winter, to bring up the spring crops. But if fall-sown 
grain is to follow small grain, then the land should be 
plowed and kept disked to make it moist enough to bring 
up seed in fall. 

QUESTIONS 

What is a rotation of crops? What crops do the people grow in 
rotation in England? Has the rotation been very beneficial in that 
country? What is a good rotation of common crops for the South- 
ern States ? Why is this a good rotation ? What effect does it have 
on land to grow cotton constantly on it? Can fertilizers be used 
profitably in rotation ? Why would yoi;. not fertilize peas or peanuts 
with fertilizers containing nitrogen? With what would you fei'tilize 
peas? What Experiment Stations have succeeded well with a three- 
year rotation? AVould following this rotation require one to put 



KOTATION OF CROPS 91 

all of his farm in one crop each year? What crop maybe used to 
advantage on the lime lands of Texas? What crop might take the 
place of oats in rotation? Why do rice farmers have to stop grow- 
ing rice for a year or more now and then? What could be done 
with the rice land to advantage when it is lying out? 

Experiment. — Get your father to rotate his crops on a small piece 
of land as an experiment, if he does not do so regularly. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MANURES AND FERTILIZERS 

Value of Bones. — About seventy-five years ago a Ger- 
man chemist named Liebig analyzed plants and found out 
what they contained. By experimenting, it was learned 
what ingredients the plants are unable to get in sufficient 
quantity from poor land, and attempts were begun to com- 
pound suitable mixtures of fertilizer ingredients. Liebig 
was perhaps the first chemist to teach that bones, being 
rich in phosphoric acid and fairly rich in nitrogen, are 
good fertilizers. He afterwards wrote, bitterly complain- 
ing that, after he had taught the Englishmen the value of 
bone as a fertilizer, they had robbed the battlefields of 
Waterloo, Leipsic, and the Crimea of a hundred thousand 
tons of bones to enrich their fields. 

Guano and Composts. — Peruvian guano, a bird manure 
of certain rainless South American islands, was the first 
concentrated commercial fertilizer used in this country. 
It was used in the older cotton states from just after the 
war between the states until about 1880, when the supply 
was mostly exhausted. About 1870, David Dixon, of 
Georgia, made composts, or mixtures of guano, manure, 
leafmold, salt, and other things, and let them lie for 
some time in large moist heaps, and then applied in the 
cotton row before planting. He raised enormous crops 

92 



MANURES AND FERTILIZERS 9S 

of cotton, and accumulated a great fortune. It is prob- 
able the salt and some other things were useless. But 
a compost of commercial fertilizer ingredients with barn- 
yard and stable manures or cotton seed never fails ta 
give good results. It has been found, however, that 
putting the manure or cotton seeil in the furrow, sprin- 
kling the commercial fertilizer on it, and then bedding on 
the mixture, does quite as well as first composting in a 
heap. 

Phosphate Rock. — Rock, rich in lime phosphate, a com- 
pound of phosphoric acid and lime, is mined in Florida, 
Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and in many other parts 
of the world. This rock is ground up by powerful mills 
into a fine powder called ^oafs. As the phosphoric acid 
is not easily soluble in this form, the powder is mixed 
with sulphuric acid. This sulphuric acid combines witli 
part of the lime, leaving the phosphoric acid in a condi- 
tion to dissolve in water and to be used by crops. The 
floats, thus treated with sulphuric acid and dried, are called 
acid phosphate or superphosphate. This acid phosphate is- 
the largest ingredient in most commercial fertilizers. It- 
contains usually fourteen to sixteen per cent of pure phos- 
phoric acid. The next prominent ingredient in commer- 
cial fertilizers is cotton-seed meal, which contains about 
seven per cent of nitrogen, three per cent phosphoric acid, 
and one and a half per cent potash. A little kainit, or 
other potash salt, found in Germany, is usually put into 
the mixtures. When containing nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash, a fertilizer mixture is called a complete- 
fertilizer. Nitrate of soda, which is mined in Chile and 



94 



ELEMENTS OE AGRICULTURE 



contains about sixteen per cent of nitrogen, may be used 
in place of part or all of the cotton-seed meal. The 
nitrogen in nitrate of soda is more quickly available than 
that in cotton-seed meal. For early, quick-maturing 
crops, nitrate of soda should take the place of some of 
the cotton-seed meal. Dried blood or other slaughter- 
house refuse and dried fish are also often used. The 
nitrogen in these is about as quickly available as that in 
cotton-seed meal. The dried fish is rich in nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid. 

Where Potash is Needed. — It has been learned from 

experiments that 
the soils of Mis- 
sissippi, Louisiana, 
and Texas do not 
generally need 
potash. So no pot- 
ash salt should be 
used in the mix- 
tures for these 
states. In Georgia, 
the Carolinas, and 
Alabama, a little 
potash is generally 
found beneficial. 

Fertilizer Mix- 
tures. — Equal 
parts of cotton- 
seed meal and acid phosphate mixed will make an excellent 
cotton fertilizer for old and worn lands. Such a fertilizer 




Fig. 35. 



Fertilized and Unfertilized 
Cotton 



MANURES AXD FERTILIZERS 95 

will contain about three and a half per cent of nitrogen and 
nine per cent of phosphoric acid, and about three fourtlis 
per cent of potasli. For land not so badly worn or land 
that has been in pasture, or been lying out one or more 
years, 1300 pounds of acid phosphate and 700 pounds of 
cotton-seed meal, making a ton, would probably be better 
than the other meal-acid-phosphate mixture. For land 
needing potash about two hundred pounds of kainit 
should enter into each ton of mixture. Trade conditions 
now seem to warrant us in valuing nitrogen in fertilizers 
at seventeen cents a pound, and phosphoric acid and 
potash at six cents a pound each. 

Balancing Manures. — Barnyard and stable manures are 
not well enough balanced without some additional phos- 
phoric acid to give the most valuable results on most of 
the thin lands of the cotton states. If every load of 
manure had a hundred pounds of acid phosphate added 
to it, the results would be better, and it would go much 
farther. Manure, as a rule, is much richer in nitrogen 
and potash than in phosplioric acid. Experience has 
shown that for most sections a fertilizer should be richer 
in phosphoric acid than in anything else. 

Rich Food makes Rich Manure. — The quality of fresh 
animal manures largely depends upon the kind of food 
the animals eat. No food eaten by animals loses much of 
its fertilizing value by passing through the animals. The 
manure made from feeding cotton-seed meal will never 
contain less than seventy -five per cent as much fertilizing 
value as the meal had, and it may contain as much as 
ninety per cent. Manure made from feeding cotton seed 



96 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

will be richer than that from feeding corn, because cotton 
seed is richer than corn. 

The liquid manure from well-fed cattle will contain 
half or more of the total fertilizing value of the feed. 
From cattle eating mostly coarse food, the liquid will not 
contain so much of the fertilizing value. 

In order to save the liquid manure properly in stables, 
bedding for the cattle should be provided so as to absorb 
and hold it. 

As has been said before, if animals are allowed to tramp 
the manure down in the stables, its value will be preserved 
better than in any other way, unless it be applied to the 
land and mixed with the soil from day to day. 

Value of Manure. — A dairy cow, well fed, will produce 
ten cents' worth of manure a day, if the plant food is 
rated at the same price that has to be paid for it in com- 
mercial fertilizers. A horse well fed on oats and grass 
hay will produce nine or ten cents' worth a day, but of 
course not all of it will be dropped in the stable. If tlie 
horse is fed on peavine, peanut, or alfalfa hay, the manure 
will be worth more. Your past lessons have taught you 
why this is so. Immense losses occur every year on ac- 
count of the poor way in which farm manures are handled. 
In fact, on most farms no attempt is made to save and use 
them. 

A ton of cotton seed has about the same plant food that 
a thousand pounds of cotton-seed meal has. The meal 
rots quicker, and is perhaps better for quick-growing 
crops. As the seed supplies more humus to the land, it 
will give results the second and third years after using. 



MANURES AND FERTILIZERS 97 

QUESTIONS 

Who was the first man that analyzed plants? What complaint 
did he make against the English people? What was the first con- 
centrated fertilizer used in the United States? Tell about David 
Dixon's first experience in using this concentrated fertilizer. Where 
is the phosphoric acid of fertilizer obtained? How is phosphate rock 
treated? What is the name of the product made from phosphate 
rock ? What is generally mixed with it? What may take the place 
of cotton-seed meal in fertilizer mixtures? What is meant by com- 
plete fertilizer ? What advantage has nitrate of soda over cotton- 
seed meal as a fertilizer? What other materials are rich in nitrogen? 
What states appear to need no potash added to their soil? What 
states appear to need some potash in their fertilizer mixtures? Name 
a suitable mixture of acid phosphate and cotton-seed meal for cotton 
to be grown on worn land. What may be added to barnyard manure 
to make it more valuable? W^hat fertilizer ingredient should nearly 
all fertilizer mixtures be richest in? Is very much fertilizing matter 
lost from feed stuff by being eaten by animals? Which will produce 
richer manure when fed to animals, corn or cotton seed? Which will 
produce richer manure when fed, peavine or Johnson-grass hay? 
How much cotton seed will equal a ton of cotton-seed meal in ferti- 
lizing value ? Which will have the most lasting effect when used as a 
fertilizer, cotton seed or cotton-seed meal? Which will give the 
quickest results? 

Experiment. — Manage to get a few rows of cotton and corn on the 
farm at home fertilized with cotton-seed meal, a few rows with acid 
phosphate, and a few rows with kainit, using all fertilizers at almost 
the rate of one hundred and fifty pounds per acre. Watch growth of 
crops carefully and if possible weigh and measure yields. Then use 
a mixture of meal and phosphate, a mixture of meal and kainit, and 
a mixture of phosphate and kainit in the same way, and also note 
results. See if the author is correct about the kinds of fertilizers 
needed. 

Try fertilizing peas or peanuts with cotton-seed meal, with phos- 
phate, and with kainit in the same way. Report results to school 
next year. 



CHAPTER XV 

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 

Large Use of Fertilizers. — The use of commercial fer- 
tilizers has grown enormously in a few years. Georgia 
used in 1907 perhaps $15,000,000 worth and used them 
profitably. Texas used perhaps less than 20,000 tons, yet 
Texas probably has more land suited for using such fer- 
tilizers profitably than Georgia has. Arkansas and Okla- 
homa also have much of such land. Practically all of the 
timber belts, most of the coast prairies, and much of 
the sandy and loamy lands in the red-land sections in 
Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas would prob- 
ably readily respond to commercial fertilizers. The lime 
lands and the dry lands of the West are generally too rich 
for ordinary amounts of commercial fertilizers to be used 
on them with profit. 

Valuing Fertilizers. — A mixture of 1200 pounds of 
cotton seed and 800 pounds of acid phosphate to the ton 
makes a good fertilizer. 

This mixture contains about 36 pounds nitrogen, worth 
$6.12, about 126 pounds phos23horic acid, worth $7.56, 
and about 20 pounds potash, worth $1.20. Total value, 
$14.88 per ton. 

Of the meal and acid phosphate mixture first named 
on page 91, 2000 pounds contain: — 

98 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 99 

70 pounds nitrogen @ .17 $11.90 

180 pounds phosphoric acid@ .06 10.80 

15 pounds potash @ .06 .90 

Total value per ton, $23.60 

For Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas 1200 pounds 
phosphate, 700 pounds cotton seed meal, and 100 of 
muriate or sulphate of potash are often recommended ; 
also 1000 pounds phosphate, 700 pounds meal, and 300 
pounds kainit. Kainit contains 12% of potash, and 
muriate and sulphate about 50% of potash. 

Nitrate of Soda. — The nitrogen in nitrate of soda acts 
more quickly than that in cotton-seed meal. All plants 
need fertilizers when young. So a mixture probably 
better than the last one named would be 1400 pounds 
acid phosphate, 400 pounds cotton-seed meal, and 200 
pounds nitrate of soda to the ton. Or, for badly worn 
land, 1200 pounds acid phosphate, 600 cotton-seed meal, 
and 200 nitrate of soda. Where whole seed are used 
instead of meal, 1000 pounds seed, 850 pounds acid phos- 
phate, and 150 pounds nitrate of soda are recommended. 
For quick-growing crops like early truck crops a still 
larger proportion of nitrate is recommended. 

Richness of Mixtures. — The different fertilizer mix- 
tures which contain cotton-seed meal and cotton-seed 
meal and nitrate of soda are all richer than the aver- 
age fertilizer which is sold for cotton. One hundred and 
fifty pounds to the acre are about equal to 200 pounds 
of ordinary cotton fertilizer. These mixtures are about 
as rich as most of the so-called vegetable fertilizers. 



100 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

except that the latter usually have a large amount of 
potash. 

Do Fruits need Large Proportions of Potash? — It lias 
been generally supposed that fruits and vegetables need 
larger proportions of potash than ordinary field crops do ; 
but from what would seem conclusive results in Louisiana, 
Mississippi, and Texas, potash is not profitable to use for 
any crop on any soil yet tried in these states. There 
seems to be no proof anywhere that fruits and vegetables 
need a larger proportion of potash than corn or cotton. 
The kind of land more than the kind of crop seems 
generally to determine the kind of fertilizer. For well- 
known reasons this statement does not apply to legumi- 
nous crops and their nitrogen supply. Tobacco needs a 
larger proportion of potash than most crops, as its ash 
contains a very large amount of this ingredient. 

Proportions of Plant Food in Mixtures. — The Southern 
manufacturers and users of fertilizers, in mixing their 
materials so as to contain two per cent of nitrogen, eight 
per cent of available phosphoric acid, and one and a half 
to two per cent of potash (or in about those proportions), 
seem to be much nearer the best practice than Northern 
manufacturers and mixers follow. Books have been writ- 
ten giving what are supposed to be the fertilizer needs of 
almost all crops, and the only basis for supposing the 
crops to need plant food in the proportions recommended 
seems to have been the analysis of the crops themselves. 
Analysis shows that nearly all crops contain more potash 
than phosphoric acid. That is no indication that ferti- 
lizers for such crops should contain more potash than 



COMMERCIAL FEHTILIZERS 101 

phosphoric acid. Ahiiost all lands are richer in potash, 
generally three to four times as rich. From the best- 
known chemical means of determining available plant 
food, there are many times as much available potash in 
average soil as there is phosphoric acid. 

Many of the largest fertilizer companies in the country 
are putting more potash than phosphoric acid in their 
fertilizers. Such practice is, without doubt, causing the 
loss of millions of dollars annually. 

Experiment Necessary. — Only actual field trials with 
crops will afford proof of what they need on different 
soils. The experiment stations of the country have made 
the most reliable literature of agriculture we have, and 
their results clearly show that, with rare exceptions, crops 
need much more phosphoric acid than potash in fertilizers, 
and in much of the country the latter is not needed at 
all. In nearly all cases, the kind of land instead of the 
kind of crop should decide which one of these elements 
is most needed. A slightly worn, muck land in Illinois 
and the neighboring states needs only potash to make it 
productive again. Very poor sandy land in Florida 
needs potash, but still more phosphoric acid and nitrogen. 
Some land in Mississippi and the states west of the Missis- 
sippi River probably need potash — particularly deep sandy 
land. Farmers should make some tests for themselves. 

Stimulating Effects of Fertilizers. — Many people ask if 
commercial fertilizers do not have a stimulating effect, 
and if they do not wear out the land. 

It is true that 100 pounds of fertilizer will often increase 
the cotton crop 500 pounds of seed cotton to the acre. 



102 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

This cotton, together with the seed, contains more plant 
food than the fertilizer contained, notwithstanding some 
of the latter is always washed away. The explanation is 
that the fertilizer causes a strong growth of root that en- 
ables the crop to get more plant food out of the soil than 
it would get otherwise. To that extent fertilizer wears 
the land. But if we can get the plant food in the form 
of valuable cotton, we shall be more than repaid for the 
wearing of the land. 

Effects Permanent. — By using reasonable amounts of 
fertilizers with coarse manures and cotton seed, or with 
suitable rotation of crops, lands are steadily and perma- 
nently enriched. We have abundant evidence that where 
large quantities, say from 800 to 2000 pounds to the acre, 
are used for vegetables, such as cabbage or Irish potatoes, 
and these crops are followed tlie same season by cotton or 
sweet potatoes, the land grows better from year to year. 

Where Fertilizers Pay. — Fertilizers seem to pay best 
on land which is sandy enough to drain perfectly, and 
which, at the same time, has a good percentage of clay 
in the subsoil. Such are the long-leaf and short-leaf pine, 
oak, and hickory lands of the Southern States. Also 
much of the coast prairies and practically all of the post- 
oak timber lands of Texas and Louisiana are of this char- 
acter. For staple crops, fertilizers seem to pay best on 
land naturally rather poor in plant food, making at best 
less than half a bale of cotton to the acre. The author 
has frequently seen moderate applications fail to show 
any good effects on land fertile enough to yield two 
thirds of a bale of cotton. 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 103 

For vegetables, large applications of fertilizer on land 
of almost any character will generally pay. Fertilizers 
have generally been unprofitable on lime land. These 
lands have such large stores of plant food that they only 
need to have their physical condition improved. Rota- 
tion of crops, coarse manures, pasturing, etc., will make 
available enough of their own food to restore their former 
productiveness. The Alabama Experiment Station, how- 
ever, did find that large applications of commercial fer- 
tilizers, containing an abundance of nitrate of soda, paid 
well on well-drained, worn lime land. Nitrate of soda 
used in side furrows during cultivation also gave good 
results in frequent trials at that station. 

Method of applying Fertilizers. — Barnyard manure is 
generally spread broadcast on the land, wliile commercial 
fertilizers are usually applied in the drill before planting. 
For cotton, the fertilizer is generally sprinkled in a furrow 
and bedded on. 

Experiments have well demonstrated that all manures 
and fertilizers give better results if they are strewn in 
the drill, or under the drill, where the crops are to be 
grown. It used to be thought that it was best to put 
fertilizers very deep in the ground. The Louisiana Ex- 
periment Station and others have proved that probably 
it is better to use them about the depth of the seed or a 
little deeper. The Georgia Experiment Station got better 
results by bedding on fertilizers than by putting them in 
the furrow with the seed. It has been believed that some 
of the fertilizers should be used at or before planting, and 
some in side furrows during the cultivation of the crop. 



104: ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

Wliere moderate amounts of fertilizers are used for 
cotton, all experiments indicate that it is a little more 
profitable to use the full amount just before or at plant- 
ing time. It has often paid to use part of corn fertilizer 
at the second cultivation. Nitrate of soda applied during- 
the cultivation of cotton has proved to be profitable in a 
number of experiments. 

Amount of Fertilizers to Use. — It has been proved by 
all experiment stations tluit small applications of concen- 
trated fertilizers, say 100 to 200 pounds to the acre for 
cotton, pay a larger percentage of profit on the cost of 
fertilizer than larger applications ; but larger applica- 
tions, 300 to 400 pounds, or even 600 pounds, often pay 
a bigger profit to the acre. It is always unprofitable to 
use too large an amount. 

It appears to be well established that land badly worn, 
and having little humus, will give good profits on only 
small applications of fertilizers. The land seems not to 
hold water enough to support a large crop. It follows that 
land in good condition from rotation of crops, pasturing, 
being allowed to grow up in weeds, or plowing under 
coarse manure, will supply water for a big crop, such as a 
large amount of fertilizer ought to produce. 

Every farmer should, by careful observation, find out 
just how much fertilizer it will be profitable to put on his 
land. From three to ten times as much fertilizer is often 
used on Irish potatoes, cabbage, onions, and other vege- 
table crops, as on cotton or corn. 

Fertilizers almost always pay better on cotton than on 
corn. ( 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 105 



QUESTIONS 

Give an example to show how large the trade in commercial 
fertilizers has become. Should fertilizers be used more largely 
in Texas than at present? What lands in Texas would probably 
give profitable results with commercial fertilizers? What amounts 
of cotton seed and acid phosphate mixed would make a ton of good 
fertilizer? What are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash valued 
at in fertilizers ? Would you use a larger proportion of cotton- 
seed meal on badly worn land than on better land ? Why would 
some nitrate of soda be of advantage in every fertilizer mixture? 
What are the vegetable fertilizers, generally sold, rich in ? What was 
the belief about commercial fertilizers wearing out land? What mis- 
takes are made by some Northern manufacturers in mixing fertilizers ? 
Do commercial fertilizers wear out the land? Do large amounts of 
fertilizers improve the land rapidly? Do small applications of com- 
mercial fertilizer pay better on rich land or poor land? What kind 
of crops, if any, need the highest percentage of potash in their fer- 
tilizers? Tell about fertilizing lime land. What is usually the 
best treatment to make lime land productive? Are fertilizers and 
manures most effective when spread broadcast over the land or 
when used in the row ? How deep has it been found necessary to put 
fertilizers in the ground? Has it been found profitable to use part 
of the fertilizer before planting and part while working the crop? 
Which pays the better, a small application of fertilizer or a large 
application? Why can large applications not be used profitably if 
the land is very badly worn ? How much more fertilizer is generally 
used to the acre for cabbage and onions than for cotton and corn ? 



CHAPTER XVI 

PLOWING 

Subsoiling. — Plowing is the primary operation of the 
farm or the garden. Yet people hold very different opin- 
ions as to how it should be done. All the older agricul- 
tural literature advised that the deeper plowing could be 
done the better on all classes of land and for all kinds 
of crops. This same opinion seems to be held by many 
agricultural writers even now. Subsoiling, particularly 
following a turn plow with a bull-tongue, running deep 
in the same furrow, so as to loosen the subsoil twelve 
to eighteen inches deep, is frequently recommended. 

The Georgia Experiment Station tried subsoiling on 
perhaps hundreds of plots of land for some ten years or 
more, but the crops were never any better than those that 
received ordinary plowing. The Mississippi Stations, 
two of them, thoroughly tested subsoiling on different 
lands, for different crops, and at different seasons of the 
year. The crops were never increased over those made 
on lands plowed in the usual way. 

The Kansas Experiment Station tried subsoiling for 
many years, but the yield of the crops was never in- 
creased. The experiment stations of. many other states, 
including Texas, have been similarly disappointed in sub- 

100 



PLOWING 107 

soiling. It is expensive to subsoil land, and if it does no 
good, it should not be recommended. The truth seems ta 
be that there is very little land where subsoiling pays. 
Many farmers have reported good results from subsoiling^ 
while others have reported no results, and still others,, 
injury from it. 

Depth to Plow. — There is a difference of opinion among 
people who do not subsoil land as to how deep it should 
be broken in its preparation. Doubtless different soils 
and different crops should influence the depth of prepara- 
tion, if their requirements could be definitely known. 
The Alabama Experiment Station for a number of years 
subsoiled some land and broke other pieces to depths 
varying from three and one half to six and one half 
inches. The subsoiling did not pay for either cotton or 
corn, and the different depths for breaking did not seem 
to give any marked difference in crops. One depth 
yielded most one year, and another depth yielded most 
another year. The different depths of breaking averaged 
about the same yield for both corn and cotton. The 
Indiana and Oklahoma stations tried eight-inch plowing 
against four-inch for many years, and generally did not 
get increase enough in yield to pay for the extra work of 
breaking deep. Every farmer should make some tests 
for his own land. 

The Texas Experiment Station planted sorghum on one 
piece of land subsoiled fifteen inches deep, on another 
plowed five inches deep, and on still another plowed three 
inches deep. That broken five inches deep yielded much 
more than either of the others. The subsoiled piece made 



108 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

a little more than the piece broken three inches deep. So 
it would seem that breaking the land or bedding it an 
ordinary depth is best, and we know it is cheapest. 

Deep Plowing for Cane. — In Australia and Hawaii, deep 
breaking and planting have proved best for sugar cane, 
but it is probable that the deep planting serves to keep 
the tall tropical cane from falling down, and that it yields 
more on this account. Many experiments at several ex- 
periment stations in Australia failed to give any good 
results for especially deep breaking for other crops. 

H. W. Campbell, who has won something of national 
fame on account of the results achieved in farming 
semiarid land, claims that it is far more important to 
compact the soil plowed and make it thoroughly fine 
than to plow it deep. He recommends plowing from 
three to seven inches deep, according to the conditions, com- 
pacting again, and then working up a fine mulch of sur- 
face soil about three inches deep. In a conversation with 
the author, Mr. Campbell said that it would be well-nigh 
impossible to compact land plowed twelve inches deep 
so as to get it again in good condition for drawing up 
moisture from the subsoil. 

Purposes of Plowing. — Plowing serves to bury trash 
and manure, to make a seed bed, to conserve moisture, 
to kill weeds and grass, to allow air and water to enter 
the soil better and promote chemical changes, to allow 
roots of crops to grow better, etc. 

All farmers' boys and girls know a plow and its differ- 
ent parts. If not, they should ask their fathers and 
neighbors about these things. 



PLOWING 109 

Black-land and Sandy-land Plows. — A plow is a sort 
of twisting wedge. The more twisting the wedge the 
more it turns the soil and the more it pulverizes it, but 
the harder it is to pull, and the poorer it will scour in 
black or stiff soil. The straighter and more tapering 
the moldboard, or wedge, the easier it will be to pull, 
the less it will turn and break and crumble the soil, the 




Fig. 36. — Sandy-land Plow 




Fig. 37. — Black-land Plow 

brighter it will keep, and the better it will work in stiff 
and black land. Figure 37 shows a good type of a black- 
land plow, also suitable for any stiff clay soil. Figure 36 
is a good picture of an ordinary, or sandy-land plow. 

Sandy-land plows are apt to choke and cake on black 
land. The black land may be broken up cloddy, but as 



110 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

explained before, the lime it contains soon causes the 
clods to melt down into little shotlike particles. This is 
xdso true of much of the bottom land. 

Killing Bermuda Grass. — It is often advisable to use a 
black-land plow in sandy sections. To kill Bermuda 
grass where it has been pastured, the sod should be 
broken in the fall or winter about three inches deep 
with a small black-land plow, going at such speed and 
held in such a manner that the furrow slices will be 
turned on edge. This causes the grass to freeze and die. 
On pastured land, the underground stems of this grass 
have to come near the surface for air, and hence shallow 
23lowing at the right season causes them to freeze. The 
land on which the Bermuda grass has been killed in 
this way is always rich and productive when brought 
back into cultivation. 

Killing Johnson Grass. — Johnson grass may be pastured 
two years and killed by careful working of the land in 
cotton a year or two. The big fleshy runners, which go 
down so deep in cultivated land, come close to the surface 
when pastured, and get small and weak. If, after being 
pastured, the land is broken in the fall and then thor- 
oughly plowed again in the spring and worked well and 
late in cotton, the grass can be entirely killed. After 
the turf has been killed and rotted, the land becomes 
very productive. 

QUESTIONS 

What was the old idea with regard to plowing? What is sub- 
soiling? What have the Experiment Stations found out about sub- 
soiling? Is it definitely known how deep land should be plowed? 



PLOWING 111 

What about plowing deep for sugar cane? What is the Campbell 
system of soil culture? Name some of the different purposes for 
which plowing is done. How may a plow be compared to a wedge ? 
What sort of plow should be used in black land? Which will pul- 
verize and crumble the soil most, a black-land plow or a sandy-land 
plow ? What would happen to a sandy-land plow if used in sticky 
black land? How would you kill Bermuda grass? Could you kill 
Johnson grass in the same way? lu what condition is the land after 
killing Bermuda grass? Explain why this is so. After killing 
Johnson grass, what condition will the land be in? What effect will 
the rotting of any grass, weeds, or other vegetable substance have on 
the land? 



CHAPTER XVII 

PREPARATION FOR PLANTING 

Bedding or Flat-breaking. — As to whether land should 
be broken flat or thrown into beds is a question which 
depends on the character of the land, the kind of crop, 
the season of the year, and the amount of moisture in the 
soil. On sandy soil in the West it would be undoubtedly 
a fine plan to plant corn in the bottom of a lister, or 
"buster," furrow, either with a planter attachment or 
with a drill to follow after the lister. In case you d(nvt 
know what a lister is, get some good farmer to show you 
one and explain it to you. By planting the corn in the 
bottom of the furrow on hard ground, it will be sure to 
get enough moisture to come up. Your father will tell 
you that cotton, wheat, or clover planted in well-settled, 
firm ground, will come up much better than in freshly 
made, loose ground. Hard, firm land can draw up 
moisture from below. A fresh, loose bed, with seed 
planted far above the firm ground, is something like a 
lamp wick cut in two between the flame and the oil. 
The seed cannot get enough moisture to come up. When 
the young corn is in the bottom of a furrow with ridges 
of loose dirt in the middle, the dirt can be gradually 
worked to tlie corn, and little weeds and grass can be 
covered at each working. The corn, when deep rooted, 

112 



PREPARATION FOR PLANTING 113 

is better able to endure drought and to stand up in the 
storms. Cotton in some cases might also be worked in 
the same way, but when young, it is a more tender 
plant than corn, and it is more likely to need starting 
on a small bed or on level ground, even in dr}^ sections. 

In Eastern or Southern States, land must be very 
sandy, or the planting must be late, to justify planting in 
lister furrows. Generally, on clay or bottom land, early 
corn and cotton are both planted on beds for the sake of 
getting sufficient drainage to secure good stands. Corn 
is sometimes planted on beds eight feet wide, two rows 
being planted on each bed. This gives drainage on one 
side of each row of corn. 

Bedding with Lister. — One of the best and cheapest 
Avays to bed for cotton is to use a lister. The old rows 
should be broken out in the fall, winter, or early spring. 
This will make beds in the old middles. Then if, some 
time before planting, these beds are burst with the lister, 
the beds for planting will be where they were the pre- 
vious year. This preparation is much cheaper than bed- 
ding and re-bedding with a turn plow, and so far as we 
know, is quite as good. If fertilizer is used, it should 
be sprinkled in the middles just ahead of the lister when 
the land is being re-bedded, so that the beds will be over 
the fertilizer, or else tlie fertilizer should be put in the 
furrow at planting time. In the drier districts the earlier 
and deeper application of fertilizer is best. 

Fall or Spring Breaking. — There has been much experi- 
menting done to determine whether fall or spring break- 
ing of land is best. In a majority of cases in the liumid 



114 



ELEMENTS OF A(;RICULTURE 



sections of the South, land broken in the spring has pro- 
duced as good crops as that broken in the fall. Even 
where pea vines have been grown, plowing the dead vines 
under the next spring has done quite as well as plowing 
them under green in the fall. Some believe that crops 




Fig. o8. — Steam Plow on the Plains 



turned under when very green form acids that are hurtful 
to future crops. 

It has been said that tillage is manure ; that is, tillage 
enables the earth, air, and moisture to form soluble plant 
food. This is true, and hence we should till or plow little 
in a warm, wet country, unless we have crops growing or 
soon to be started that will take up and use this plant 
food, and prevent its being leached and washed away. 

Where moisture is scarce, as in the Avestern part of 
Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, fall plowing would un- 



PREFAIIATION FOR PLAN TIXG 



llr: 



(loubtedly pay. One of the things to be feared so far 
west, where it rains little in winter and early spring, is 
that there Avill not be moisture enough to bring up early 
crops. Plowed land in arid or humid climates, summer 
or winter, always contains more moisture than unplowed 
land. One of the disadvantages of clay or bottom land in 
humid climates is that, if plowed in the fall, it holds so 
much moisture that it cannot be planted early in the 
spring. Usually land that has not been plowed in the fall 
can be bedded and planted in the spring before a team 
can stand on the fall plowed land without bogging. The 
trouble is still greater if the land is subsoiled in the fall. 

Much land is of such a nature that if plowed in fall, 
it compacts again and requires just as much preparation 
the following spring. Lime lands, heavy bottoms, grass 
sods, and lands hav- 
ing large amounts of 
weeds and trash, are 
most likely to be ben- 
efited by fall or early 
winter plowing. Fall 
plowing is often ad- 
visable to destroy in- 
sects, such as boll 
worms, cut worms, 
etc., and to kill cotton stalks, so as to deprive the boll 
weevil of food. 

Plowing Land when Wet. — Ordinary types of land 
such as clays and loams are very likely to be injured 
when plowed too wet, especially in late spring. It does 




Fig. ol). — Sub-surface Packer 



116 ELEMENTS OE AGRICULTURE 

not hurt light sandy hinds, lime lands, and the buckshot 
lands of the bottoms to plow them wet, because the clods 
that are formed crumble easily. It probably would not 
hurt any land to plow it wet, if it were not that in dry 
weather the clods become very hard. The rice land of 
China and Japan is all plowed in the water, but owing 
to the fact that the land is kept wet by irrigation, it con- 
tinues to make good crops, as it has done for ages. 

Plowing for Fall Seeding. — Any kind of land in which 
small seeds, like alfalfa, turnips, rape, etc., are to be sown 
in the fall, should be broken early in summer, if possible, 
and kept clean of weeds by harrowing and disking till 
planting tmie. Such land will be much more moist than 
the land that grew a crop of grass or weeds until late in 
the season. All kinds of plants, as we have seen, draw 
heavily on the water of the soil. When two crops of 
Irish potatoes are to be grown on the same land in one 
year, the land should be well plowed and kept clean, 
from the time of digging the early croj:) until planting 
time of the second crop. In no other way, without irri- 
gation, can land be kept moist enough in most seasons to 
bring np and grow a fall crop of potatoes. 

Working Crops. — Cultivation of growing croj)s is given 
to kill weeds, to form a dirt mulch, to prevent too rapid 
evaporation of moisture, and to stir up the soil to admit 
air and cause rapid formation of soluble plant food in the 
soil. It is often advised that cultivation should alwaj^s 
be shallow — from one to two inches. Hundreds of ex- 
periments have been made cultivating all depths to five 
and six inches. Results have been very conflicting. 



PREPARATION FOR PLANTING 117 

Three inches deep has perhaps averaged better yields than 
deeper or shallower cultivation. This is about the depth 
run by single sweeps so largely used for cotton in the 
Soutli. A safe rule would seem to be to cultivate the 
most convenient depth for destroying weeds and grass. 
Cultivation may be given too often as well as too 
seldom. For staple crops, 'cultivation each twelve to 
fifteen days gives about as good results as more frequent 
working. Where drought is feared, it may pay to work 
oftener to break a crust formed by hard rains. 

QUESTIONS 

Would you plow land iu ridges or beds, or plow it level? How 
may corn be j)lanted to advantage in dry sections? What is the 
ditficulty sometimes experienced in planting cotton on fresh, loose 
beds V Why is it better to plant on land that has had time to settle 
and pack by rain ? If corn is planted in the bottom of a lister furrow, 
can it be worked cheaper ? Why do we plant on beds at all ? Explain 
how a lister is used in bedding land for cotton. Explain how fertilizer 
is applied. Which has proved better, breaking land in the fall or in the 
spring ? Has it been found best to plow pea vines under when green, or 
to wait until they are dead ? In what part of the country would you 
always plow land in the fall ? Which will always have the more water 
in it, plowed land or unplowed land ? In the humid sections do you 
have too much or too little water in the early spring? Which can 
you plant earlier in spring in humid sections, fall-plowed or spring- 
plowed land? What classes of land will do best for fall plowing? 
Is it ever advisable to plow in the fall to kill insects? What kinds of 
land may be plowed wet and not be injured? Why will it injure 
clay land to plow it wet? How do the Chinese and Japanese manage 
to plow land wet without injuring it? If you wanted to get a stand 
of alfalfa in the fall, how would you treat the land? How would 
you treat land to grow a fall crop of Irish potatoes ? 

Experiments. — Get your father to plow a few rows twelve inches 
deep, and a few rows about three or four inches deep, and plant both 



118 elp:ments of agriculture 

alike. See if there is any value in subsoiling. If you can't get this 
done, spade a small piece of ground twelve inches deep and another 
three or four inches; plant and observe results. Let the ^Yhole school 
know result next year. 

Plant at school or at home a few seeds in two boxes of soil. Have 
soil rather dry, and plant seeds in quite loose soil in one, and in the 
other pack the dirt well after planting and then loosen soil above 
seed. See what difference in the germination of the seed. This can 
be done at school. 

In the time of drought take off the top soil on well-cultivated land 
on the farm and get a little box of subsoil, closing it up tight. Take 
some subsoil from a hard-packed weed patch near by and close it up 
in a can or box. Weigh each one and then see how much water you 
can dry out of each one. 

Observe whether fall plowing enables your father to plant earlier 
or later in spring, and whether it helps or hinders early growth of 
plants. 

Wet some clay in boxes and stir one while wet, and then let it di-y 
in the sun and note effect. Stir the other when it is moderately dry 
and note difference. This is a suitable school exercise. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

IRRIGATION 

Watering Rice. — The importance of irrigation cannot 
be overestimated. It is absolutely essential to make rice- 
growing profitable, and to make other kinds of farming 
possible in many sections. The fact that when arid lands 
are irrigated, they at once become highly productive and 
lasting in their qualities, has already been referred to. In 
the rice-growing districts, large pumping machinery is 
used, sometimes raising a hundred thousand gallons of 
water a minute. This water is raised a few feet from 
the large rivers, creeks, and bayous, and emptied into 
broad, shallow canals, some of them a hundred feet wide. 
The water flows along these canals a little higher than the 
surface of the flat rice lands that are to be watered. 
Smaller canals take water out of the big ones, and still 
smaller ones take it out of these and distribute it to the 
fields. By the time the big canal flows a few miles, and 
has had half its water taken out by laterals, or small 
canals, the water has become too low to flow out, and 
another pumping station is put in to raise the water a 
few more feet into a canal made with higher banks. 

Storing Water. — In the mountain states, millions of dol- 
lars liave been spent to build large concrete dams, some- 
times a hundred feet high and a mile long, across canyons 
or stream beds. These dams sometimes make lakes many 

119 



120 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

miles long and tAvo or three miles wide, and the lakes hold 
water enough to irrigate one hundred thousand or more 
acres of land. The United States Government is putting 
in a large number of these big storage reservoirs in the 
West. By wise laws, the mone}^ derived from the sale of 
public lands in the districts to be irrigated, is used for 
building more dams, catching more water, and reclaiming 
more rich, semidesert land. It is confidently believed that 
eventually all the flood waters now flowing down the Mis- 
souri, Arkansas, and other rivers, will be stored and lield 
for summer irrigation. When this is done, there will be no 
more danger of the great levees of the Mississippi River 
breaking and flooding the rich delta country through 
which the river flows. These are vast undertakings, but 
our country is great and rich, and our people are enter- 
prising and daring in developing its natural wealth. 

Small Reservoirs. — There are thousands of small streams 
and canyons that may be dammed by individuals or small 
companies, where water enough may be stored to irrigate 
from a few acres to several thousand acres. It may be 
said that small reservoirs may be made at less expense 
to the acreage reclaimed than in the case of larger ones. 

Irrigation in Humid Sections. — The possibilities for irri- 
gating profitably in tlie humid sections have been par- 
ticularly neglected. Nearly every crop in every section 
suffers more or less from drought at some time. Much 
rain falls in Mississippi, yet the autlior has seen the 
profits on strawberries increased by irrigation as much 
as a hundred dollars to the acre. A Louisiana truck 
raiser, by irrigating during a drought, made two hundred 



IRRIGATION 121 

Hud fifty crates of cabbage to the acre, while the best yield 
made by any neighbor was one hundred and fifty ci-ates. 
The Wisconsin Experiment Station, situated in a humid 
climate, pumped water from a depth of twenty- six feet 
for irrigation, and burned coal costing five dollars a ton 
to do the work. The increased yields averaged about 
forty per cent on the different crops irrigated over those 
that were not irrigated. The net extra profits made to 
the acre one year, by means of irrigation, after paying 
for pumping and distributing the water, were as follows: — 

Hay -f 20.60 

Corn 11.18 

Potatoes .... 73.12 

Water Reservoirs. — Water can be found in abundance 
in many humid sections, and may be got cheaply on the 
land itself. Small streams often flow through the land, 
and these may be dammed up and made to flow over 
it by gravity, or the water may be raised by pumping. 
In the clay or lime districts where lasting streams are 
not plentiful, storage reservoirs can be easily made by 
damming stream beds, or hollows. In nearly all the large 
vallej^s of streams, and on low-lying lands near the sea- 
coasts, overflowing artesian water may be had. Through- 
out much of the sandy and loamy areas of the country, 
large shallow wells afford water at depths of from ten 
to sixty feet, and the supplies may often be sufficient for 
irrigation. 

Crops needing Irrigation. — Among the crops that with 
irrigation may be made very profitable in the Southern 



122 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

States are sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and fall Irish pota- 
toes. Sweet potatoes and cane do their best growing 
in September and October, when there is nearly always 
a deficient moisture supply. In fact, the states east of 
Texas are drier in these two months than the country 




Fig. 40. — Irrigating between Rows 

along the one hundredth meridian. With irrigation there 
is little doubt that a hundred bushels can be added to the 
yield of each acre of potatoes and one hundred gallons of 
sirup for each acre of cane. Cane and potatoes both grow 
in wide rows and on ridges; water can be easily applied 
to each crop, by causing it to run along the middles be- 
tween the rows. Whenever there is enough rain, tlie fall 
crop of Irish potatoes, planted about August in tlie Gulf 
States, makes quite as large and profitable a yield as the 



IRRrCiATION 123 

spring crop. On account of drought in April or May the 
early Irish potatoes scarcely produce a full crop one year 
in ten. There is no crop more easily injured by deficient 
moisture supply. 

Mistakes in Irrigation. — A great mistake almost certain 
to be made by a beginner in irrigation is, that he tries to 
make a little stream of water, say ten to fifty gallons a 
minute, irrigate a large piece of ground. To make such 
a stream water even a quarter of an acre, troughs, hose- 
pipes, etc., must be used, and that would make the labor 
of distributing the water cost too much to be profitable 
with ordinary crops. If one undertakes to run such a 
small stream along rows or furrows, it will lose itself 
perhaps in the first twenty feet. In order to run water 
along ditches and distribute it to tlie rows and over the 
land at a reasonable labor cost, at least two hundred 
gallons a minute should be at command. Sucli a stream 
may be let out of the ditch into several rows at a time, 
and the water will perhaps follow the rows a distance of 
a hundred yards. With this amount of water, one man 
can probably irrigate from one to two acres a day. With 
five hundred gallons' flow a minute, four or five acres a 
day can be watered. Another mistake where water is 
abundant is to use too much. Moderate applications of 
water followed by cultivation as soon as the land will 
work well will be found most profitable. 

Storage Ponds. — Those who have small artesian wells 
or small pumping plants, should construct reservoirs a 
little above the level of the land to be watered, and should 
accumulate water and let it out in large volume when 



124 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

it is to be applied. A flow of fifty gallons a minute will 
accumulate about seventy-five thousand gallons of water 
in twenty-four hours. This will afford a little over one 
and two thirds inches of water for an acre of land, a 
sufficient Avatering if it is applied in rows or furrows. 
In an arid country, when the land is very dry, as much 
as four inches may often be put on the land at one 
irrigation. 

Distributing Water. — In distributing water over a field, 
the ditches must, of course, be kept on the highest ground. 
The rows, or furrows, to carry the water must be run at a 
suitable angle to the ditches, so as to have fall enough to 
run the water at a reasonable rate of speed, and at the 
same time not to wash the land. A little experience will 
enable one to give the rows the best fall on his partic- 
ular kind of land. Head ditches should sometimes be 
one hundred yards apart and sometimes two hundred. 
Experience and common sense will be the best guides as 
to this. 

In the arid country farmers sometimes flood the land 
somewhat as the rice farmers do, keeping water on the 
land just long enough to wet it thoroughly. 

QUESTIONS 

Tell about rice irrigation. What is the nation doing in the way of 
irrigation? What about farming in arid countries under irrigation ? 
What profits from irrigation are possible in humid countries? What 
crops would probably respond profitably to irrigation? What 
amounts of water are necessary? AVhat suggestions are made about 
catching and storing water? What mistake is a beginner apt to 
make at first in irrio'ation? 



CHAPTER XIX 

INSECT FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 

Losses Caused. — In 1907 the cotton boll weevil no doubt 
destroyed, in Texas alone, a million bales of cotton, worth 
not less than sixty millions of dollars. When we consider 
the great number of harmful insects, we must conclude 
that the losses occasioned b}^ them for the whole country 
are enormous. 

Not all insects are harmful. We have seen how many 
of them, by carrying pollen and fertilizing flowers, make 
plants fruitful. Then we have the bee and many other 
useful kinds of insects. A little insect brought from 
the Old World made possible the Smyrna flg industry 
in California. 

Insects destroy Other Insects. — Sometimes we can get 
rid of bad insects only by finding other insects that will 
destroy them. The great sugar industry of the Hawaiian 
Islands was threatened some three years ago by a little 
creature, called a sugar-cane leaf-hopper, that was intro- 
duced by means of seed cane brought from Australia. 
The government of the island territory hired a staff of 
entomologists and sent part of them to Queensland to 
find and send over the natural enemies of the hopper, 
while the others were kept at home to breed these im- 
ported insects and place them in the fields. In this way 
the cane industry was saved. When we cannot cope 

125 



126 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



\A'ith an enemy of this kind, we try to find some brave 
little ally that will fight for us. We can keep up, in 
some cases at least, a sort of balance of power among our 
insect enemies. 

Real insects have six legs and have their bodies in three 
divisions — the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. Grass- 
hoppers, bees, wasps, ants, etc., are typical insects. 






^l-r^'^J^^^^ ^^^-r- ^ :^ 







'Ji 












Fifi. 41. — Spkaying Fruit Trees 



Classes of Insects. — Insects may be divided into two 
large classes. One class, such as the grasshopper, the leaf 
worm, and the potato bug, for instance, bite and eat their 
food. These can be killed by sprinkling the plant with 
a very weak solution of Paris green, sa}^ a heaping tea- 
spoonful to a bucket of water. In eating the leaves, the 
insect will get enough of the poison to cause its death. 

The other class of insects are those that have tubes for 
inserting into the tissues of the plant and sucking the 
juices. Poisons will not kill these because they get none 
of them. The only way to destroy the sucking insects is 



INSECT FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 127 

to use some kind of spray that will burn their bodies. 
A worm, called the cotton boll worm, tomato worm, or 
corn worm, according to the kind of plant on which it is 
found, eats leaves at times and can be killed with poison, 
but after it has eaten into the ear, the boll, or the fruit, 
it cannot be easily reached by poisons. 

Cabbage growers often use Paris green to kill the cab- 
bage worm, but do not let their customers know it. 
Sucli applications are so small, and the poison is so nearly 
washed off by rain, that no person has ever been known 
to be hurt by eating cabbage treated in this way. 

Killing Grain Weevils. — Corn and pea weevils that in- 
fest our grains after they have been gathered can be easily 
killed by placing the grain in barrels, boxes, tight bins, or 
tight rooms, and placing on top or near the top of the 
grain a cup or tin can containing a little bisulphide of 
carbon, sometimes called "high life." This liquid evapo- 
rates and forms a gas heavier than air, and this gas sinks 
down through the grain and kills the insects. A tea- 
spoonful to each two or three bushels of grain will accom- 
plish the desired result. The gas soon passes off, and 
does not hurt the seed for planting or for other use. 
Weevils will get back in the grain later, and a new appli- 
cation will be needed. 

Insects carry Disease. — One kind of Southern cattle 
tick carries the germs of the deadly Texas fever from 
Southern cattle to Northern cattle. This will be discussed 
later. The dreaded surra, which kills the horses of India, 
China, Java, and the Philippines, is carried by biting flies. 

It is now very well known that malaria, yellow fever, 



128 ELEMENTS OF AGIUCULTURE 

and dengue fever are carried from one person to an oilier 
by different species of mosquitoes. In biting a person 
having malaria, the mosquito gets the germs of the dis- 
ease, carries tliem away, and injects them into the next 
person bitten. Since the discovery of this great truth, 
people, by protecting themselves against mosquitoes, have 
good health even in the great river bottoms of the South. 
Typhoid fever is carried sometimes by the house fly. An 
insect called the tsetse fly of Africa carries the dreadful 
sleeping sickness of that country. It is quite likely that 
insects play a more important part in the carrying of the 
germs of human diseases than we yet know. 

The Boll Weevil. — This insect pest came into South- 
west Texas many years ago from Mexico, and has spread 





Fig. 42. — Boll Weevil (Magnified) and Larva (Greatly Magnified) 

eastward and northward till it has reached parts of Okla- 
homa, Arkansas, and Mississippi. 

About first frost the grown weevils appear to go into 
winter quarters in timber, grass, weeds, and in any rub- 
bish that may be convenient. The fact that weevils are 
always numerous in fields near forests shows that the 
woods afford them suitable places for hibernating, or liv- 
ing through the winter. 



INSECT FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 129 

The weevils begin to come out and hunt for food in 



i*"it^t)k^^ 



Fig. 43. — Different Life Sizes of Adult Weevils 

April, and often continue to come out until late in June. 
The cotton plant furnishes their only food. Those that 
emerge early feed on the leaves and buds of the young 
plant until 
squares begin 
to form. After 
this they live 
by puncturing 
the squares with 
their long bills 
and sucking the 
juice. The fe- 
males also punc- 
ture the squares 
in order to de- 
posit their eggs. 
little grub (Fig 




Fi( 



44. — Pi \< TTTRBD Square containing 
Young Weevils 



The egg soon hatches and produces a 
44), which eats the inside of the little 
square and causes it to fall to the ground. In about 
eighteen or twenty days from the time the egg is laid 
in the square, the new weevil is old enough to begin 
laying eggs. This gives a new generation of weevils at 
least every twenty days. As each female weevil lays 



130 ELEMENTS OF A(;R1CLTLTUKE 

over a hundred eggs during her life, one pair of weevils 
will produce a vast number in one season. 

Starving the Weevils. — It has been proved by Professor 
F. W. Malley of the Texas Experiment Station, and Dr. 
W. D. Hunter and others of the Department of Agricul- 
ture at Washington, that if cotton stalks are destroyed 
early in the fall, the w^eevils will have to endure a longer 
fasting period, and fewer of them will live till spring. It 
may be said that if all the cotton stalks were destroyed, 
so as to deprive the weevils of their food in October, 
probably only one per cent would live till cotton came 
up the following spring. If deprived of food in Novem- 
ber, perhaps three per cent would live through the winter, 
but if deprived of food in December, five or six per cent 
would live till spring. The cotton should, therefore, be 
picked as soon as possible, and all the stalks should be 
cut and burned. Perhaps an easier plan for many would 
be to turn cattle into the fields. Cattle will soon strip the 
stalks of all squares, bolls, and leaves, leaving the weevil 
nothing to feed on. This plan not only furnishes excel- 
lent grazing for cattle, but it preserves the fertility of the 
land much better than the burning of the stalks does. 
Unfortunately few people will burn their cotton stalks or 
allow their cattle to graze on them. As weevils are 
known to go as far as twelve miles from where they 
grew to maturity, the practice of burning or grazing the 
cotton stalks would have to be somewhat general in order 
to accomplish results that would be at all satisfactory. 

Selecting early kinds of cotton, planting early, fertiliz- 
ing liberally on poor lands, and working the crop well are 



INSECT FRIEXDS AND ENEMIES 131 

the means that are chiefly relied on for raising cotton in 
spite of the weevil. By means of these methods, a suffi- 
cient number of bolls matures to make a fairly good crop 
before the weevils get numerous enough late in July and 
early in August to destroy all the squares and young bolls. 
Sometimes a full crop is made in spite of the weevil and 
other pests. As the average cotton stalk ordinarily makes 
six times as many squares as mature into bolls, most of 
the squares may be destroyed and still a sufficient number 
may be left to make as many bolls as the stalk can bring 
to maturity. 

Fall Plowing. — Some people recommend deep, fall 
plowing as a means of planting early, and of getting the 
young cotton to grow rapidly. This is certainly the cor- 
rect practice for the dry West Texas country, where the 
weevil first appeared, but clay and bottom lands farther 
east have too much water in early spring to permit very 
early planting and the most rapid growth of the young 
cotton. If plowed deep in the fall, this difficulty is only 
increased. If practicable, such lands should be handled 
in a way to make them get rid of water as rapidly as 
possible until about planting time. At that time there 
will be an abundance, if not an excess, and if the land 
is worked from then on so as to conserve moisture, every 
requirement of good agricultural practice will be met. 

Destroying the Weevils. — Some people believe in dusting 
cotton with Paris green at the time the weevils are eat- 
ing the young leaves before the squares appear. Most 
observers, while agreeing that some weevils are killed, do 
not agree that this is a pr.. Stable practice. In the early 



13^ 



ELEMENTS OF AGHICULTURE 



!.Of»p- I 






*.-i;*-^^.4*i.?.-«. 



."«5..o:>,-'^' - >; 



mc«i* 






m^ '- 'im ' r 



Fig. 45. — Early and Late Cotton in Boll Weevil District 



INSECT FRIENDS AND EXEMIES 133 

part of the season, when a few squares fall on account of 
being punctured by weevils, it is generally agreed that 
it is profitable to pick tliese squares up and burn them, 
since each one contains a young weevil. One weevil de- 
stroyed the first of June probably prevents tens of thou- 
sands of offspring later in the season. This practice is 
profitable to each farmer who adopts it, whether his 
neighbor follows his example or not, because weevils 
generally stay in the fields where they are hatched until 
late in the season, wlien food becomes scarce. 

Enemies of the Weevils. — Some farmers are raising tur- 
keys and guinea fowls in large numbers not only for the 
profit to be derived from the fowls, but for their service 
in destroying weevils. These birds are said to lessen 
appreciably the damage done by weevils. Very many 
species of birds eat weevils, and as a general rule birds 
should be protected. A little native black ant destroys a 
great many weevils while they are in the larval stage in 
the square. These ants are said to be multiplying in the 
weevil districts, and to be greatly lessening the damage 
done by weevils in some places. Weevils are also, to some 
extent, subject to fungous diseases. 

This pest is spreading rapidly into the wet districts, 
but is not moving northwest in Texas, where the air is 
dry and the heat is intense. Hot, dry weather dries out 
the squares and kills the young. The indications are that 
this pest will be more destructive as it moves east, on 
account of abundance of moisture, the shade of the rank- 
growing cotton, and the late maturing of the crop. 
Unless the extra moisture also favors bird, insect, and 



134 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

funo-ous enemies of the weevil, it will be more destructive 
east of the Mississippi River than it ever was in West 
Texas. 

One especial enemy of insects and friend of man is the 
toad. He eats an unusual number of cut worms and 
other pests. It would undoubtedly pay to have pools, 
or tanks, of water about the farm and garden to encour- 
age toads to multiply. There is little doubt but they 
would catch a good many boll weevils. 

See Appendix for descriptions and means of destroying 
most insect pests. 

QUESTIONS 

What is the estimate of the damage done by the boll weevil in 
1907? Are all insects harmful? Name some beneficial insects and 
tell what great service insects render to plants. How can we estab- 
lish a balance of power among insect enemies ? Give an example of 
such use of insects. Define a real insect. What two classes of in- 
sects are there ? How are the two classes killed ? How are cabbage 
worms killed sometimes? How are corn and pea weevils killed? 
What cattle diseases are carried by insects ? What human diseases 
are known to be carried by insects and what insects carry the germs 
in each disease? Show on a map what sections the cotton boll 
weevil now infests. What food mut:*" the weevil have? What goes 
wdth them through winter? What do they eat when they first come 
out in spring? How long does it take for a generation of weevils 
fully to mature? How many eggs does each female lay and how 
long will it take one pair to produce a million offspring? Of what 
advantage is it to cut and burn or graze the cotton field in October 
as compared with doing the same in December ? What methods are 
chiefly relied on to make a crop where there are weevils? How about 
fall plowing to help early planting and rapid growth of plants? 
What kind of cotton should be selected? What disadvantage will 
the cotton raisers in the more rainy districts have in fighting the 
weevil ? 



CHAPTER XX 
COTTON 

History and Statistics. — The great crop of the South- 
ern States is cotton, and it is one of the great crops of the 
world. The United States raises something like four- 
fifths of the world's commercial supply of this staple. 
The East Indies produce something over 2,000,000 bales- 
of cotton, but it is inferior. Egypt raises a good quan- 
tity of fine quality, and China raises a considerable 
amount, but its quality is inferior. The Chinese often 
sow their cotton broadcast, and crawl through the patches- 
and pick out the weeds. Russia raises a few hundred 
thousand bales in the southern part of her Asiatic pos- 
sessions. Small patches of cotton may be seen in Japan 
also, but it seldom grows over a foot in height. 

In all tropical countries small quantities of cotton are 
grown from perennial plants that often grow wild and 
become almost as large as fruit trees. The tropics were 
the original home of the cotton plant, but the temperate 
zones grow it much better. 

Our forefathers in America commenced to grow cotton 
perhaps two hundred and fifty years ago, but it is not 
definitely known whether the first seed planted came from 
Europe and Asia, or from Mexico and South America. 
It is supposed that seed came from all these countries. 

135 



136 



ELEMP]NTS OF AGRICULTURE 



In round numbers, the United States is now planting 
35,000,000 acres in cotton and producing 13,000,000 bales 
weighing 500 pounds each. The crop is worth in all about 




Fig. 46. — Good Typk of Cotton Plant 



$700,000,000, not including the seed, which are worth 
over 1100,000,000. 

Where Cotton Grows. — Cotton is grown as far north as 
SI degrees on our lowlands and 34 degrees on the lands 
of West Texas having an elevation of three thousand 
feet. It was at one time believed that cotton needed a 



COTTON 



137 



moist atmosphere, but its successful growth in West 
Texas proves that it is adapted to a very dry climate 
also. It is grown in the entire cotton belt on every 




Fig. 47. — Poor Type of Cotton Plant 



kind of land that is even partially well drained and cul- 
tivated. There is no other crop that will stand the same 
abuse in the way of poor preparation, poor culture, poor 
di-ainage, w^eeds, grass, and other unfavorable conditions, 
and make as good returns. After neglect that would 
ruin corn or other crops, cotton has often done better 



138 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



than when carefully cultivated. Since the coming of the 
boll weevil, good rapid cultivation has become necessary. 
How Planted. — Cotton is generally planted on a ridge, 
but in the dry areas, and in the sandy lands in the eastern 
sections, it is sometimes planted on a level. The farmers 
in each community know when it is safe to plant, and 




Fig. 48. 



Rolling Fresh Cotton Bed to firm the Soil 
FOR Planting 



whether it is necessary to plant on a ridge. The 
pupils should learn the details of the cultivation and 
handling of cotton from their fathers and neighbors. 
Early planting generally yields better than late planting, 
but this is not always so. Early planting is very impor- 
tant where there are boll weevils. Late plantings on any 
rich bottom land are very likely to grow too much stalk 
and leaf to make a good 3'ield. 

Preparation of Land. — In order to be certain of getting 
a stand of cotton, the land should be prepared some time 



COTTON 



139 



before planting, so that it may settle and become com- 
pact. A compact, firm condition enables enough water 
to be drawn up from the subsoil to sprout the seed even 
in dry weather. A good plan is to list cotton land in the 
fall, winter, or early spiing, with two furrows of a turn 
plow. Then, just before planting, the middles should be 




Fig. 49. — Mississippi Cotton Field 



broken out. This gives a firm soil to plant in, and a 
fresh, clean bed for the young plants. Planting time 
usually marks the beginning of dry weather, when the 
planter should begin to work to save moisture. The 
loose, fresh bed will help to save moisture. If prepared 
just before planting, without previous listing, the land 
should be rolled, dragged, or harrowed, so as to make it 
firm. Often when the weather is dry, cotton seed lie in 
the ground from April to June on account of being 



140 ELEMEXT8 OP^ AGRICULTURE 

planted on a loose, fresh bed. Did you ever notice in 
a very dry season that the cotton or wheat came up well 
near a turn row where the teams had packed tlie ground, 
Avhen it did not come up over the rest of the field ? 

Depth of Preparation. — As cotton has a long period of 
growth, it does not need to have the land so thoroughly 
prepared as some crops do. It is often planted on rough, 
clodd}^ land, and if the land is put into good condition 
during the first working, it will make a good crop. It 
does not need deep preparation of soil. Some of the best 
cotton raisers in the country sprinkle the fertilizer in the 
old cotton or corn middle, and make the bed over an 
unbroken center. Other successful planters make beds 
with a buster, as explained heretofore. These methods 
are cheap ; they allow tlie work to be pushed along, and 
make about as good seed beds as the more expensive 
methods. It is often the case, as explained before, that 
clay or bottom land in the rainy belt, when deeply pre- 
pared in the fall, winter, or earl}^ spring, holds so much 
water that it cannot be planted early, and when it is 
planted, remains so cold that the crop does not grow 
rapidly. Cotton also adapts itself well to different modes 
of cultivation. Where coco, or nutgrass, is bad in Mis- 
sissippi and Louisiana, the farmers fight this grass by 
throwing dirt in the rows with turn plows and covering 
the grass. When laid by the cotton is often on a ridge 
two feet high, but it makes just as good a crop apparently 
as if cultivated on a level. 

Different Methods for Different Sections. — It is a great 
advantage, in many cases, to list the land in the fall or 



COTTON 141 

winter, with two furrows, as has been explained, and let 
it remain firm and compact until just before planting 
time. This will allow the excess of moisture to evaporate, 
and make the land warm enough for the crop to come up 
and grow fast. This advice applies especially to land in 
the eastern part of the cotton belt, where there is almost 
always too much moisture in the early spring. To secure 
the best results in the dry parts of the belt, it is im- 
perative that the land be prepared in the fall or early 
winter, and be kept harrowed and in good tilth right up to 
planting time in the spring. In fact, where the rainfall is 
only about twenty inches a year, the land on which crops 
are planted in rows should never be allowed to get out of 
tilth. Cultivators or broad sweeps should be run at in- 
tervals until corn-gathering or cotton-picking time, and 
then the same implement should follow the gatherers or 
pickers in order to save moisture for the next crop. 

In the more rainy sections this same thing should be 
done if crops of any kind are to be planted on the land in 
fall or early winter, for in the rainy sections of the cotton 
belt the conditions for fall seeding are about as unfavor- 
able as they are in the semiarid sections. If, however, 
the land in the humid sections is not to be planted 
again till the following spring, it needs no such treat- 
ment, for it almost always gets too much water before 
spring. 

Professor R. L. Bennet, Cotton Expert of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, after studying cotton at the Texas 
Agricultural College for four years, came to definite con- 
clusions as to the method of securing an early, prolific 



14: 



ELEMENTS OF ACiRTCL'ETURE 



cotton which will make a good crop before the weevils 
get numerous enough in summer to do serious damage. 

He found that certain types of big boll cotton are easy 
to pick, and make bolls just as early as small boll cotton. 

Although the big bolls 
do not dry and open so 
quickly as the small bolls, 
yet they become large 
enough to be secure from 
the attack of the weevils 
just as early in the season 
as the small bolls do. 
These types have an ad- 
ditional advantage in that 
when the cotton opens, it 
is not so badly blown out 
by storms. 

By selecting certain 
types of stalks from fields 
of good kinds of cotton 
grown in each neighbor- 
hood, and growing the 
seed from the single 
stalks separately, the farmer can get kinds of cotton far 
superior to that produced from most seed that are offered 
for sale at high prices. Usually the seed from a single 
stalk will yield very true to the parent plant. Efforts 
to improve the seed gradually by high fertilizing every 
year have not proved satisfactory. If the right type is 
selected and this type breeds true, the improvement is 




Fig. 50. — Round Cotton Bales 



COTTON 143 

made all at once. The seed from one stalk can be multi- 
plied fast enough to plant a good-sized field the third year. 

Cotton plants have nodes or joints. Short-jointed stalks 
that grow fast and fruit rapidly should be selected. 
Mr. Bennett makes the following suggestions : — 

1st. The stalks selected should have fruit limbs begin- 
ning not higher than the fifth or sixth joint above the 
lowest, or seed-leaf joint. 

2d. The wood limbs, or primary limbs (large branches 
which themselves put out fruit limbs) should be low, and 
preferably not over four in number. 

3d. Joints on primary and on fruit limbs should be 
short — from one to three inches in length. 

4th. Fruit limbs should grow at the successive joints 
of the main stem and the wood limbs. 

5tli. All the fruit limbs should continue to grow and 
fruit until the plant is matured. 

6th. The widest leaves should not be over six inches 
across. Wide leaves keep out the sun, and the weevil 
thrives in the shade. Figure 46 shows the type of cotton 
to select. Figure 47 shows the type not to select. After 
Mr. Bennett gets the right type of seed, he plants early, 
fertilizes highly, and works the crop rapidly to make it 
grow and fruit as fast as possible. He believes in pick- 
ing up the fallen squares in the early part of the season, 
and in pasturing the fields early in the fall or destroying 
the stalks, or doing both, as a means of making the 
weevils less numerous the following year. 

Cost of Cultivation. — Cotton is much easier to cultivate 
in the western part of the belt than in the eastern. In 



144 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



f^^ 



the western part, one hoeing or chopping, costing about 
fifty cents an acre, is required. In the eastern part, from 
two to three hoeings are required, costing perhaps on an 
average of |2.50 an acre. The cultivators should be run 
as often in the west to save moisture as they are in the 

east to kill grass and weeds. 
Cultivation is always easier 
and cheaper anywhere if 
the crop can be worked 
often and kept from getting 
foul with weeds. 

Thickness of Planting.— 
All the experiment stations 
in the South agree that the 
yield and earliness of a crop 
of cotton are increased if 
the plants are rather thick 
in the rows — from twelve 
to twenty-four inches aj)art 
when the rows are from 
three to four feet wide, the 
widest spaces in each case 
being on the richest lands. 
Length of Staple. — Short- 
staple cottons, having a lint about one inch long or less, 
make up the great bulk of the crop. In some cases, 
however, on rich bottom lands and highly manured 
uplands, cotton having a staple one and a half inches 
long or more is raised. These long-staple cottons bring 
perhaps fifty per cent more than the short-staple cottons. 




Fig. 5L 



Long and Short Staple 
Cotton 



COTTON 



145 



The black-seeded sea-island cotton, grown near the coast 
and on some islands of Sonth Carolina and Georgia, is 
the finest cotton grown in the world. It is worth three 
times as mucli as short-staple cotton. Short-staple cottons, 
however, generally yield more and tnrn out a larger pro- 
portion of lint to the seed than 
the long-staple kinds. 

Ginning and Baling. — Cotton 
has nearly always been poorly 
handled. It is often carried to 
the gin when moist. Tlie gin runs 
too fast and cuts the lint badly 
even when the cotton is dry. 
Each bale carries to Europe or to 
the domestic mill thirty pounds of 
bagging and ties that are thrown 
away, and yet it is poorly wrapped. 
It is cut and torn in taking numer- 
ous large samples from the bales. 
It lies out in the rain and suffers 
damage. It goes to the compress for repacking, and 
finally goes to the ship for export so poorly packed 
that it has to be screw-pressed into the ship at heavy 
expense. For all these expenses and losses the farmer 
actually pays in the smaller price he gets for his cotton 
at home. If all these losses, or nearly all of them, could 
be avoided, cotton would perliaps bring the farmer a cent 
a pound more than it does under the present conditions. 

Kind of Bale. — If the cotton could be packed densely in 
a round bale that would save so much sampling and require 




Fig. 52. — American Bale 
OF Cotton as it gets 
TO Europe 



146 elp:ments of agriculture 

l)ut a few yards of cheap burlap covering, the saving to 
tlie farmer would amount to a great deal. Heretofore 
this method of baling has been objected to, because the 
owners of the presses would not sell them, and appeared 
to be seeking to create a monopol}' of baling cotton. As 
soon as patents expire and ginners can buy these presses, 
it would seem to offer a means of effecting great saving 
to tlie cotton farmers. 

Judging Cotton. — All farmers and farmer boys and 
girls should learn how to judge cotton. They should get 
some samples of known classes and practice judging. 
While cotton is in the seed, a fairly correct judgment of 
its quality can be formed. Pull the seed apart and 
straighten out the lint, as in Figure 47, and compare the 
lengths. You will find the longer staples will make much 
larger tufts. Then if the cotton is quite free from trash, 
dirt, and stain, and is ginned carefully, you will know 
that it sliould bring a large premium over ordinary kinds. 
If a farmer sells a steer, he knows whether it is fat ; if he 
sells butter, he knows whether it is of good quality ; yet 
he allows the cotton bu3^er to be the sole judge of the 
quality of his cotton. 

The Seed. — Cotton seed, until a few years ago, were for 
the most part wasted. Mississippi has an old law on her 
statute books prohibiting ginners from throwing seed into 
creeks. Seed are now known to be very valuable as a 
fertilizer and as a feeding stuff. They yield oil that is 
refined and made into compound lard, butter, and salad 
oils; the cake and meal are used for fertilizers and cattle 
feed ; the hulls have proved to be a good rough feed for 



COTTON 147 

cattle; and the short lint, called linters, got by running 
the seed through the gin before they are hulled, has 
various uses. A ton of seed yields about 40 gallons of oil, 
800 pounds of meal, 800 pounds of hulls, and 40 pounds 
of linters. By studying market prices of these products, 
remembering that the oil mill should have four or five 
dollars a ton of seed for expenses and profits, one can 
always form a correct estimate as to what is a fair price 
for seed. 

Large numbers of cattle <t,re fattened on cotton-seed 
hulls and meal mixed, but the most of the meal is ex- 
ported to Europe. The oil and linters are also largely 
exported. 

Feeding Seed and Meal. — People having cattle to feed 
should not sell seed for less than two-thirds the price of 
cotton-seed meal. The worth of seed for feed is fully 
two-thirds that of meal, ton for ton, but somewhat more 
care may be necessary in order to get the best results from 
feeding seed Avhole. 

QUESTIONS 

Througli what degrees of latitude does cotton flourish in the United 
States? At what elevation above sea level is it being grown? Is the 
old idea that cotton needed a moist atmosphere correct? Is cotton a 
very hardy crop? Are early or late plantings of cotton most likely to 
yield good crops ? Would you recommend early or late planting where 
the boll weevil is prevalent? What is likely to happen if cotton is 
planted late on rich bottom land ? Explain how land may be listed 
in the fall or winter for cotton, so that the beds may be finished just 
before planting time. Give the advantages of this plan. If cotton 
mast be planted on fresh beds, what advantage would it be to roll the 
beds or drag something heavy over them ? Why is it that cotton will 
sometimes come up near a turn row when it does not over the rest of 



148 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

the field ? Does cotton require as thorough preparation of land as 
some other crops? Does it need the soil deeply prepared? Will it 
make a good crop if the bed is made over an unbroken center? Tn 
the humid sections, would you plow land to make it hold more water 
in winter, or would you handle it in a way to make it get rid of some 
of the water ? In the wet districts, about w4iat time in the spring 
would you commence to work your land to make it hold its water? 
Why would you harrow wheat and oats in the seraiarid sections while 
they are growing? Why would it pay to run cultivators through 
your cotton, kafir corn, and other crops in dry sections until the crops 
are gathered ? Why is not cotton with bigbolls as early-opening as small- 
boll cotton ? Why is big-boll cotton to be preferred to small-boll cotton ? 
Describe the kinds of cotton that have proved earliest and that proved 
to make the best crops where boll weevils are bad. Where is cultiva- 
tion of cotton cheapest, in the dry or wet section? Will cotton make 
more growing close together or far apart in the rows? Will cotton 
make earlier if grown close in the drill? Will it make a larger 
yield? What is the finest cotton known ? Tell some of the ways in 
which cotton is badly handled. Tf handled in a better way, would it 
bring the farmer a better price? Why should all farmers know how 
to class their cotton? How can you tell something of the value of 
your cotton before it is ginned ? What are some of the uses of cotton- 
seed oil? What products do the oil mills get from a ton of cotton 
seed? Can you tell from these products about what the farnier 
ought to get for his seed ? What are the relative values of cotton 
seed and cotton-seed meal for feeding cattle ? 

Experiment. — Get a cotton buyer to give you samples of middling 
cotton, low middling, good middling, and middling fair, with the 
differences in value of them. Practice sampling and judging for 
yourself. Do this at school. 



CHAPTER XXI 

CORN 

Indian Corn, so called because it was first found among 
the American Indians, is the greatest single crop grown 
in any one country on earth. The annual value of the 
crop grown in the United States is about one and 
a quarter billion dollars. Texas stands about fifth or 
sixth among the states in corn production. Something 
like a hundred different commercial products are manu- 
factured from the corn plant, such as oil, rubber substi- 
tutes, starch, sirup, alcohol, packing for battleships (the 
pith of the stalk is used for this purpose), Missouri cob 
pipes, and many other things. 

Origin. — This giant grass had its origin in tropical 
America, but like many other plants of like origin, 
it makes its best gi-owth toward the northern limit of 
the area of its production. It grows all the way from 
Canada to Cape Horn, and has spread to the warm 
l)arts of Europe and the Far East, including Australia 
and Australasia. 

Kinds of Corn. — AVe have dent, flint, sweet, and pop 
corns. The dent corn is of especial interest in most of 
the corn belt as a field crop. Flint corn matures quickly, 
and is grown in the extreme northern part of the belt. 
It does not usually make large yields. Dent corn is 

140 



150 ELEMENTS OF AGllICULTURE 

shriveled at the hirge end of the grain. Of the yellow 
and white corns of the dent variety, the white kinds have 
usually yielded better in all the southern half of the corn 
belt, and they are somewhat better for making bread. 

Soil and Fertilizers. — Corn is grown on all kinds of 
land, but it does not flourish with as poor soil, drainage, 
culture, etc., as cotton does. Corn does its very best on 
rich, well-drained l)ottom lands, that have plenty of humus. 
On thin uplands corn needs not only better fertilizing than 
cotton, but also a somewhat larger proportion of nitrogen 
in the fertilizer. Therefore all fertilizer mixtures for 
corn should have a little less acid phosphate and a little 
more cotton-seed meal, nitrate of soda, or cotton seed than 
those which are intended for cotton. 

Preparation of Land. — It lias commonly been supposed 
that corn land needs deeper preparation than cotton land, 
but evidence from Southern experiment stations does not 
indicate this. The land needs thorough, but not neces- 
sarily deep, prepai'ation — perhaps five inches deep. Corn 
can be planted earlier than cotton — perhaps two or three 
weeks. 

Selecting Seed. — The same general principles for se- 
lecting seed as have been recommended for cotton apply 
to corn ; but as corn is very likely to cross, the desirable 
shoots had better be covered and pollinated artificially. 
For sections having plenty of rain a larger stalk and 
later-maturing type would make a better yield. Farther 
west, where moisture is less abundant, a smaller stalk 
and quicker maturity would be better. It matters little 
whether corn for seed tends to bear one ear or more 



CORN 



151 



than one. Corn yields best when planted so thick as to 
average about one ear to each stalk. Testing out the best 
selections from individual stalks in one's own neighbor- 
hood, or on one's own farm, is better than ordering from 
some distant 
state seed corn 
which is said 
to have a fine 
pedigree and 
high yielding 
record. Farm- 
ers should 
order at most 
only s m all 
quantities of 
seed from a dis- 
tance, and care- 
fully test them 
out for adapt- 
ability to their 
own localities 
and conditions. 
Corn generally 
adapts itself to 
a locality, and 
yields better than the same kind brought from a distance. 
Yields and Expenses. — In much of the South the aver- 
age corn yield is low — being from ten to twelve bushels 
to the acre. In some of the Northern States the average 
yield runs up to nearly forty bushels. In both North and 




Fkj. 53. — Corn and Peas 



152 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

Soutli from seventy-five to eighty bushels to the acre are 
not uncommon. Suppose you find out how mucli work is 
done on each acre of corn on your father's farm, including 
2:)reparation of land, planting, plowing, hoeing, gathering 
the crop, etc. ; then by counting a day's work of a man at 
a dollar and the work of a horse or mule at fifty cents, and 
estimating the value of land rent, seed, and fertilizer, find 
out what is the expense of raising an acre of corn. Then 
estimate the yield and give it the value corn has in the 
neighborhood, and see how much is made or lost. You 
jnight do the same with cotton and other crops. 

Saving Fodder. — It used to be a very common practice 
in the South to strip the leaves from the corn when it got 
nearly dry, and to cure these for fodder. This makes a 
fine feed, but a man can strip so little of it in a day that 
people are abandoning this plan of providing rough feed. 
The Texas Experiment Station many years ago tested the 
plan of saving the fodder by cutting off the tops of the 
corn. In proportion to the amount of feed saved, this 
plan proved much cheaper than stripping the blades from 
the stalks. The plan generally followed in the main part 
of the corn belt is to cut down the whole stalks and put 
them up in shocks until tliey are cured, and then to shuck, 
or husk out, the ears of corn. What is left is called stover, 
and is fed to cattle through the winter. This stover is 
often torn up into fine pieces in a shredding machine, and 
the product is called shredded corn stover. Shredding is 
expensive, and the feed is not greatly improved by the 
process, for the shredded stover is very hard to keep. In 
the South, corn stover is more subject to injury than in 



CORN 153 

the North, because tlie stalks of the corn are hirger and 
liold more moisture. This process is not growing in 
XK)pularity in the South. Even in the corn states perhaps 
not one farjner in a hundred shreds his stalks. It is prob- 
ably better to break the corn from the stalk in the old 
way, and then allow the stock to graze on the fields. One 
Northwestern experiment station has found this the more 
profitable plan. 

Another chapter will tell how to keep Aveevils from in- 
juring corn. 

QUESTIONS 

Where was Indian corn first found? How does this crop compare 
in importance with other crops of the world? Name some of the 
products manufactured from corn. Where did corn originate, dnd 
where does it grow best? What different kinds of corn iiave we? 
A\'hat is the best kind of corn in the South? Does corn grow well on 
all sorts of land? Does soil for corn need very deep preparation? 
Are different varieties of corn likely to cross? What could be done 
to prevent crossing? For sections having plenty of rain, would you 
select late corn or early corn ? Would it be safe to order a large 
quantity of seed corn from a great distance ? How large a yield of 
corn can be got under good conditions? How could you estimate the 
profits or losses on an acre of corn ? Is pulling fodder a profitable 
practice? What is corn stover? What is shredded stover? Is it 
profitable to save and shred corn stover in the South ? 

Experiment. — If you live in a section where corn is grown for 
market, get samples of market grades of corn from a buyer and learn 
to judge these grades and value them. This is a suitable school ex- 
e)'cise. 



CHAPTER XXII 



WHEAT AND OATS 

Wheat is one of the oldest grain crops. It is particu- 
larly adapted to northern latitudes and elevated regions. 
It is a cold- weather plant, though it may grow well in 
sections where the weather gets very warm about the 
Wheat thrives where the weather is too 
cool or the rain- 
fall is too little 
for corn. It also 
does well over 
most of the corn 
belt of the United 
States. 

It is hardly 
advisable to 
plant wheat in 
South Texas or 
in any part of 
tlie Gulf States 
east of Texas 
unless it be on the highest lands of Alabama. It is liable 
to rust, and the crops will usually not pay. 

Wheat has a decided preference for clay soils. It does 
not do well in a deep, loose seed bed. Preparatory plow- 

154 




Fig. 54. 



Wheat planted in Loose Soil and 
IN Soil Compacted 



AVHEAT AND OATS 155 

ing may be shallow, and the soil should be firm and com- 
pact. You perhaps remember the story of the English 
peasant farmer whose wheat had been run over, and 
trampled upon by the hounds of a nobleman who was 
hunting on the peasant's farm. The peasant demanded 
and received a certain sum of money as damages, but 
afterwards returned the money, because he found the 




Fig. 55. — AVheat Field on the Plains 

wheat most trampled by the hounds was the best. Pas- 
turing wheat moderately in fall and early winter is gen- 
erally found beneficial, if done when the land is not too 
wet. Pasturing is also good for oats, barley, and rye. 

Fertilizers. — Wheat grown on the same grade of land 
as corn needs a larger proportion of nitrogen in its fertili- 
zers than does corn, because it grows in spring and ripens 
in earl}^ summer before nitrogen compounds have begun to 
form rapidly. But since wheat is mostly grown far 



150 KJ.EMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

enough north and west to insure soil having a hirger 
supply of nitrogen than the thin Southern corn lands 
have, a moderate [)roportion of nitrogen is likely to be 
sufficient. 

Wheat and Cotton. — Where cotton and wheat grow in 
tlie same section, a crop of wlieat may very suitably follow 
a cro2^ of cotton. If the cotton is well worked right up 
to picking time, wheat may be sown after one of the pick- 
ings and covered with a walking cultivator. The cotton 
stalks may be cut and dragged off after the picking is 
finished. This dragging will serve as a harrowing and 
will help the wlieat crop. Often the cotton can all be 
picked in time to sow wheat. In tliis case a good chopping 
up with a disk harrow will put the land in fine shape 
for the wheat drill. Where wlieat is to follow corn, 
kafir, milo, or sorghum, the same treatment of land is 
recommended ; at suitable intervals the land sliould be 
w^orked with cultivators between the rows right up to 
wheat-seeding time. This should be done as a means of 
saving moisture. 

Wheat after Small Grain. — If wheat is to follow small- 
grain crops, the stubble of the latter should be disked and 
plowed and re-disked from time to time till seeding time 
again, in order to save moisture for the new crop in the 
fall. In the dry sections of the West this would be safer 
than to risk a pea crop between the two grain crops, 
because a large pea crop pumps out an immense quantity 
of water. If the pea crop is tried, it should be planted in 
rows and kept well cultivated till it is cut. The land 
should then be well disked and seeded. If the pea hay is 



WHEAT AND OATS * loT 

particularly desirable, it might pay to grow it, even if it 
caused a failure in the wheat crop. 

In the southern part of its territory wheat is nearly 
always seeded in the fall. Farther west, where the win- 
ters and springs are dry, wheat fields should be harrowed 
from time to time until as late as April, or as long as it 
can be done without hurting the plants. This treatment 
saves moisture, and the moisture helps to prepare food in 
the soil for the crop. H. W. Campbell, in his dry -farming 
operations, drills his wheat in twenty-inch rows and cul- 
tivates between the rows with a cultivator that works 
several rows at a time. 

The Green Bug. — Proper working of the land to save 
plenty of moisture for starting the wheat off vigorously, 
and then pasturing in the fall, seems to be the best treatment 
against the green bug that is sometimes so destructive. 
This insect starts on the sickly yellow plants on poor spots 
of land which have not been properly prepared. The cattle 
and sheep while grazing eat up the bugs, and when the 
young leaves grow out, dark and green, they are not so well 
suited to the bugs' taste as yellow, unthrifty older leaves. 

A Barrel of Flour. — It requires about 258 pounds of 
wheat, or 4.3 bushels, to make a barrel of flour. This 
amount of wheat should yield, according to Dr. H. W. 
Wiley, Chemist of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture, the following products : — 

Patent Flour . . . 149.37 lbs. 

Bakers' Flour . . . 29.13 lbs. 

Low-grade Flour . . 17.50 lbs. 

Total Flour . . . 196.00 lbs. or one barrel 



ir)8 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

Wheat Bran . . . 45.56 lbs. 

Shorts . . . . 9.80 lbs. • 

Screenings . . . 4.99 lbs. 

Waste or loss . . . 2.35 lbs. 



Total .... 258 lbs. or 4.3 bushels 

By studying the market values of flour and the by- 
products, bran, shorts, etc., farmers can tell pretty well 
what price to demand of the millers for wheat, or what 
amount of wheat to offer in exchange for flour, feed, etc. 

Oats can be grown profitably farther south than wheat, 
provided Texas red, rust-proof varieties, or other kinds 
not so subject to rust, are chosen. The oat is a profit- 
able crop clear to the seacoast in all the Gulf States. 
Under a system of fertilizino- and rotation it is a g-ood 
crop on the small farms throughout the large area of 
sandy-loam lands of the Gulf and South Atlantic States. 
On the lime and clay lands not artificially drained, the soil 
is often too wet in winter and early spring for oats to do 
well. In the South oats do much better when sown in 
the fall, although fair crops are got from sowings made 
in Fel)ruary. 

Method of Planting. — To make sure that the fall sow- 
ings will not be killed by frosts, tlie seed are often drilled 
on freshly plowed land, the drill running northeast and 
southwest and sinking well down in the plowed ground 
and leaving little ridges between the drill rows. Tliese 
ridges serve as wind-breaks, and prevent the little plants 
from l)eing killed in the winter. 

Fertilizers. — Oats need decidedly more nitrogen in their 
fertilizer than cotton or corn needs, on account of maturing 



WHEAT AND 0AT8 159 

before the weather gets warm enough to form nitrates in 
the soil rapidly. Two or three hundred pounds of the 
mixture recommended for okl lands, drilled with the seed, 
and a top dressing of a hundred pounds of nitrate of 
soda, harrowed in during March or April, can be counted 
on to make a good crop. 

Rotation. — Peas should ahnost always be grown on the 
land after the oats are liarvested, not only on account of 
tlieir value for hay, but because of their excellent effects 
on tlie land. In one experiment on thin, sandy land at 
the Alabama Experiment Station, previous crops of cow- 
peas and velvet beans — part of each having been cut off 
for hay and part turned under, vine and all — made 
increases of the oat yield of about twenty-five bushels to 
the acre over similar pieces of land, one of wdiicli had 
grown sorghum and the other crab grass and hog weeds. 
Oats, when not followed by a crop of peas, are very 
exhaustive to the land ; but Avhen followed b}^ peas, the 
land is greatly improved. 

Oats and Vetch. — Hairy vetch seed are often mixed 
with oats, and the two thrive togetlier and make a dense 
growth. Tlie vetch is a legume, and improves the land. 
Sometimes the vetcli climbs up on the oat stalks and in 
stormy Aveather })ulls them down, causing considerable 
loss. From tlie seed which it slieds on the ground the 
vetch comes up volunteer in the fall. It makes a good 
winter and early spring pasture, and a fine hay plant when 
grown alone or with oats. 

Winter Growth. — A crop of oats, or oats mixed with 
vetch, followed by peas, makes a fine preparation of the 



160 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



land for cotton or any other crop the next spring. 
Besides, the oat and vetch seed which are lost at harvest 
time come up in the fall and clothe the land in green 
during the winter. This is of great advantage in sections 
Avhere the winter rains are heavy. The green crop takes 

up the soluble 
plant food and 
prevents it from 
being washed 
away. It also 
helps to evapo- 
rate some of the 
excess of water. 
Then when the 
land is plowed 
in spring, tlie 
plant food is 
given to the 
regular crop as 
the green stuff 
rots. Where 

fall oats or fall 
oats and vetch are grown in rotation with corn and cotton, 
each field has a green cover crop two years out of three, 
and this is of itself of great value. 

The same general facts that have been given about 
wheat and oats will apply to barley and rye. No attempt 
has been made to give details about any of these crops. 
Don't fail to learn more from your fathers and friends 
about these crops, and about the tools, implements, and 




Oats and V^etc h 



WHEAT AND OATS 161 

macliines that are used for working and handling 
them. 

QUESTIONS 

What kind of country and climate suits wheat ? Will corn do well in 
all wheat countries? Which will grow farther south, wheat or corn? 
Would you plant wheat in South Texas or Mississippi? How should 
wheat land be plowed? Does it hurt wheat to graze it in the fall? 
Does wheat need as niucli nitrogen as corn ? Do wheat and cotton do 
well in the same section ? How could you sow wheat in cotton fields ? 
In dry sections, how late would you work your crops? Why would 
you harrow growing wheat in dry regions? If you intended to follow 
small grain with wheat, in dry regions, would you plant a pea crop 
after the small-grain crop? What time of the year is wheat sown 
in the South? What treatment is suggested for the green bug? 
How much wheat does it take to make a ban-el of flour? What 
other things are got besides the flour? Which will grow profitably 
farther south, oats or wheat? How are oats planted to keej) them 
from winterkilling? Which needs the more nitrogen in the fertilizer, 
oats or corn? Why is this so? What should be done with the oat 
land after the oats are cut? Give an example of an increased yield 
of oats on account of leguminous crops. What crop is often grown 
Avith oats? Is the oat crop alone exhaustive to the land? Is 
the oat crop, followed by peas, exhaustive to the land? Of what 
advantage is a green crop to land in winter? In liumid sections, 
what effect will the green crop have on the moisture? Would a 
winter crop be of advantage in dry sections? 

Experiment. — Study market grades of wheat in the way suggested 
for corn and cotton. Try growing some wheat or oats in drills on the 
farm at home and cultivating between the rows. See if you can 
make a much larger crop and at the same time not plant over half as 
much seed. Try nitrate of soda, one hundred pounds per acre, as a 
top dressing in March or April on a small piece of oats or wheat. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

RICE 

Use and Varieties. — Rice is used as an article of food 
b}' a great many of the earth's inhabitants. An enormous 
amount of rice is grown and eaten by the hordes of people 
in China, India, Japan, and Australasia. Rice is of many 
colors, including black, red, and white. There are very 
many varieties adapted to different conditions, from the 
salty marsh lands near the sea, up to the mountain sum- 
mits many thousand feet high. Some kinds assume a 
dwarf habit, and come to maturity when two months old 
in the dry, hot season. Other kinds are planted at the 
beginning of the flood season in the great river bottoms of 
the Far East, and grow and grow as the flood rises, till 
they reach a height of twenty feet, and then mature 
floating on the water, so that the harvesting has to be 
done in boats. 

Oriental Methods. — The people of Oriental countries 
almost always plant their rice thick in seed beds. When 
it is six weeks or two months old, they set it out in the 
land where it is to grow, planting about 75,000 plants to 
the acre. The land is first plowed and raked when muddy, 
and all the grass is killed. The rice plants are set in this 
mud, and rain water or irrigation water is made to cover 
the land and keep down weeds and grass. In China, 

162 



RICE 



163 



Japan, and India, transplanting is necessary in order to 
give the people time to raise a crop of barley or vegeta- 
bles, which they must grow in winter and spring, and yet 
have their rice early enougli. In the Philippines, Java, 
and Borneo, this plan is of advantage, because there are so 




Fig. 57. — Rice Field in Louisiana 

many coarse grasses, like Johnson grass or Avorse kinds, 
that would grow faster than the young rice and choke it 
out. By cleaning the land and setting plants when a foot 
high and putting on water, the fields can be kept clean, 
and good crops can be made. 

In the Philippines, men, Avomen, and children — perhaps 
a hundred or more — meet at a field that is to be set in rice. 
They have a string band, and as the band plays, they set 
rice in the mud, keeping time to the music, as if dancing. 

Southern Methods. — Louisiana and Texas are growing 
the bulk of the rice crop of tlie United States now ; South 
Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas grow a comparatively 



164 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



small amount. The level, stiff clay prairies of Texas, 
Louisiana, and Arkansas are ideal for rice. They are level 
enough for large areas to be surrounded by a small dike, 
or levee, so as to hold the water over the land at an even 
depth. Water plays an important part in the cultivation 
of rice. P^nouorh water is turned on the field to drown the 




FkJ. 58. — FiLIPIXOES PLOWING IN MUD PREPAUING 

Land for Rice 

weeds and grasses, but not enough to cover completely 
the rice at any place in the field. The numerous streams 
and bayous in such a flat country afford an abundant sup- 
ply of water for the rice. Then })uniping from a deep 
well in which the water comes up to or near the surface 
will supply a good-sized plantation. Hundreds of these 
wells are in use. 

As this land holds water like a jug, no excessive amounts 



KICK 165 

have to be supplied. When water is drawn off into the 
drains about the time the crop is ripening, the land 
readily dries and gets hard, so that harvesting machinery 
can work on it as easily as on a wheat field. 

Rice does not need rich land in order to produce a good 
crop, but bigger yields are made on good land. 

Preparing and Planting. — The land is plowed and har- 
rowed when moderately moist, as for other crops. The 
seed are put in witli a drill, as wheat and oats are planted. 
Water is not turned on till the rice is six inches high. 
Then lines are run with a leveling instrument, so as to 
inclose the most land possible that does not vary in level 
more than six inches, and these level lines are followed 
by road graders or other implements to make the levees 
or dikes, which are seldom more than eight inches high. 
The land is plowed to a depth of about three inches only. 
This depth of plowing makes just as good a crop as deeper 
plowing, and it leaves the land harder for the harvesting 
machinery to run over. Sometimes it is necessary to go 
over the rice fields and pull out large Aveeds. In South 
Carolina and Georgia rice is often planted in wide drills 
and cultivated somewhat like corn. 

Red Rice. — A prolific, early kind of rice, having red 
grains or red streaks on the grains, has become a sort of 
weed in the rice fields. The seed ripen early, and some 
fall on the land and come up with the next crop. In this 
Avay the variety multiplies so rapidly that the market value 
of the whole crop is lessened, for in our markets there is 
no sale for rice with red grains. In the Orient, however, 
red rice is esteemed just as highly as white ; and the black. 



166 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

glutinous rice is thought to be the best of all. To get rid 
of the red rice seed, the fields are usually allowed to lie idle 
a year or two, and then fresh, clean seed are again planted. 

Yields and Profits. — Rice in Louisiana and Texas aver- 
ages about 1500 to 1600 pounds of rough, or uncleaned, 
rice to the acre. This is about 35 bushels, or a little over 
twice the average wheat yield in the United States. Some 
plantations frequently produce twice this amount. The 
Hawaiian Islands average 8000 pounds of rough rice to 
the acre in two crops grown in one season, or something 
over 175 bushels to the acre in one year. 

As rough rice sells in the United States for about the 
same price as wheat, it would seem to be a much more 
profitable crop. It costs more, however, to grow rice. 
Water must be pumped or paid for, if furnished by a 
canal compan}^ dikes must be made and kept up, and the 
water must be distributed regularly to the fields. Then 
some weeding is required. Otherwise the metliods of 
culture and harvesting of the two crops are much the 
same. Rice allows a longer period of time for harvesting 
than wheat, so that one man can save much more. By 
planting kinds of rice which ripen early and kinds which 
ripen late, the farmer may prolong his harvest season for 
nearly three months. 

Fertilization. — Rice is not extensively fertilized in this 
country, but in the old w^orld it is fertilized in the same 
way as other crops. Some very favorable results have 
been reached by fertilizing in this country. Certainly pea 
crops would give good results if planted during the years 
the land is idle for the purpose of ridding it of red rice. 



RICE 167 

Most planters, however, use their entire energies and re- 
sources in growing a big rice crop on other land, leaving 
themselves no time or means to grow and save a pea crop. 

Time of Planting. — Rice may be planted from April 
to June. Any rice field that can be well drained in winter 
may be sown in the fall to hairy vetch or bur clover. 
These crops will mature a good yield of green manure 
by the last of April. If the land is well chopped up with 
disks at this time, the rice may be drilled any time in May 
or June, without other preparation. Some acid phosphate 
may be used to advantage when the restorative crop is 
sowed in the fall. Rice yields could no doubt be much 
increased in this way ; and but for the red rice, big crops 
could be grown every year. 

Bur clover will mature seed by the 30th of April in 
the Louisiana and Texas rice belt, and these seed might 
stand the flooding and still come up volunteer in the fall, 
as they do on dry land. 

Manufactured Products. — A sack or barrel of rough 
rice weighing 162 pounds contains approximately the fol- 
lowing products: — 

Clean rice 100.00 lbs. 

Hulls (generally burned for power) . 32.10 lbs. 

Rice bran 20.20 lbs. 

Rice polish . . . . . 6.30 lbs. 

Loss 3.40 lbs. 

Total . . . . . . 162.00 lbs. 

Some 60 pounds of the 100 pounds of the clean rice 
should be best head rice, 30 pounds No, 2 (somewhat 



168 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

broken), and 10 pounds badly broken, called brewers' 
rice. 

Witli the help of these figures and the market value of 
rice, bran, and polish, farmers can draw a fair conclusion 
as to the market value of a sack of rice. Of course, the 
better the quality of the rough rice, the more cleaned and 
head rice there will be, and hence the higher the value it 
will have. 

QUESTIONS 

Is rice a very important crop in the world? Where is it grown 
largely? What different kinds of rice are grown ? How do Oriental 
people plant rice ? Why do they plant it this way ? What states 
grow most of the rice in the United States? What advantages do 
these states have in rice-growing? What is water mostly needed 
for in growing rice? Why do rice growers not plow land deep? 
How do the rice planters keep the water covering the ground ? 
What is red rice? What do the planters do to get rid of red rice? 
How much rice is made on an acre in Texas and Louisiana? How 
about the profits of rice as compared with wheat? How late may 
rice be sown? What plant could be grown on the land to enrich 
it in winter? Tell what products can be got from a sack of rice. 

Experiment. — See if you can arrange to grow on the farm at 
home a little piece of rice, planting by the Japanese method. Try 
some bur clover on a piece of rice land and see how much increase 
the rice makes next vear. 



CHAPTER XXIV 



SUGAR CANE 



Sugar cane is grown in all of the Gnlf and South At- 
lantic States for sirup-making, and in parts of Louisiana 
and Texas for sugar-making. About 300,000 tons of 
sugar are made annually in 
these two states. This is one 
of the oldest industries in the 
United States, having arisen to 
commercial importance over a 
liundred years ago, when people 
Avere picking the seed out of 
cotton with their fingers. 

Cane in Tropics. — Sugarcane 
is a tropical crop, and still does 
best in the tropics. As it takes 
twelve months to produce seed 
and ripen, cane never gets fully 
ripe in any country that has 
frost. In two or three tropical 
countries, where conditions are 
very good, sugar cane grows for 

seventeen or eighteen months before ripening. In most 
parts of the tropics it ripens and seeds in the dry season 
when just a year old. People in the tropics do not usually 

169 




Fig. 59. — Seeded Sugar Cane 



170 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

plant the seed. They phiiit a few joints of the tops of 
the cane. When cane is really ripe, the eyes of the top 
joints germinate and grow much better than the eyes on 
the older parts of the stalk. 

Saving Seed. — As the top joints of our cane are not 
mature enough to grow well, we plant the whole stalk. 
It is much better to dig up the stalks that are to be used 
for seed, as the roots contain many of the best eyes, or 
buds. The seed cane is cut or dug about tlie first frost 
and piled in long piles and covered with dirt. It keeps 
better if banked wlien well Avet by rain. It is planted 
in deep furrows in early spring, sometimes in the fall, a 
continuous line of cane being put down so that the top 
of one stalk joins the root of another. In the sugar belt, 
where cane is cut at the ground, sometimes as many as 
three continuous lines of cane are put in the furrow. 

Fertilizer for cane should contain a larger proportion 
of nitrogen than fertilizer for cotton. Cane grows large, 
and needs rich soil. In the Hawaiian Islands, where the 
largest jdelds in the world are made, as much as two tons 
to the acre of high-grade fertilizer are used, and the land 
is given over 100 inches of water, pumped sometimes to a 
perpendicular height of 600 feet. 

In the United States cane needs a well-drained soil, 
because poorly drained land is too cold for it. In the 
tropics it may stand with its roots under water for weeks 
without being seriously harmed. It needs plenty of rain 
or irrigation. 

Cultivation and Yields. — Cane is not difficult to culti- 
vate. It has existed for ages almost as a wild plant in the 



SUGAR CANE 171 

tropics, where, by doing battle for mastery of the soil with 
other giants of the land, it grew strong and hardy. After 
it gets a good start, it is kept clean mostly with turn plows 
and disks, that heap dirt up to the stalks, and cover the 
weeds and grass. This is kept up until the cane has- 
grown tall enough and thick enough, by suckering, to 
shade the ground and keep down other growth. In the 
United States, cane when mature yields from 15 to 40 tons 
to the acre ; in the tropics, the yields are usually much 
larger. In Java, the average yield is 40 tons, and in the 
dry parts of Hawaii, under irrigation, the average is 60 
tons, and on some plantations the yield reaches as high 
as 120 tons. 

Rattoon Crops. — Cane will come up every year from the 
stubble of the year before, but as the crops get smaller 
and smaller, it does not often pay to grow more than one 
or two of these " rattoon " crops. Cane should be cut 
low, and then the stubble should be cut off with sharp 
hoes under the surface of the ground. Otherwise, germs 
will get into the roots and injure the buds that make the 
stubble, or rattoon crop. 

In the United States cane never gets very sweet until 
frost scorches the leaves and checks the growth. At this 
season the sirup makers and the sugar makers begin to 
harvest the crop and manufacture sugar and sirup. 

Best Land for Sirup. — Tlie light sandy loam lands pro- 
duce decidedly the best-flavored and the best-colored table 
sirup. The pine lands of the Southern States, when ferti- 
lized, produce from 300 to 600 gallons of sirup to the acre. 
This sirup is of such excellent quality that it readily sells 



172 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



for 50 cents a gallon. These highly profitable results are 
reached in spite of the fact that the small horse-power 
mills which are usually employed for crushing do not often 
get over two-thirds of the juice that the regular sugar- 
plantation mills would get from the same cane. 

Making Sirup. — The apparatus for boiling the juice to 
sirup consists of a kettle or evaporating pan set on a 
rock or brick furnace. It has been 
decided by the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture that no chemical 
whatever is needed to make first-class 
sirup from sugar-cane juices. Careful 
straining of the juice and skimming 
while it is cooking, and then boiling 
to a uniform density, is all that is 
necessary. 

Every sirup maker should have a 
saccharimeter, a little floating instru- 
ment that Avill measure the Aveight 
of the sirup. The sirup should be 
boiled down to about 75 degrees, Brix 
saccharimeter. That is, it should still 
contain about twenty-five per cent of water. If it is sealed 
while hot in well-scalded jugs, bottles, or cans, it will keep 
fresh for years. If the sirup is made rather thin, so that 
the sugar will all, or nearly all, be held in solution, the 
quality will be much better. If the sirup is to be kept 
in barrels, it must be boiled thicker ; when this is done, 
much of its sugar crystallizes and settles in the bottom of 
the barrels. Sirup not sealed in sterilized vessels will 






Fig. 60. — Way to use 
A Saccharimeter 



SUGAK CANE 



173 



^i^i?f;.f_^ 




ferment when hot weather comes. If barreled sirup is 
kept in cold storage, it will not grow the germs that cause 
fermentation, and will keep well. 

Making Sugar. — For making sugar, the juices of the 
cane used to be boiled 
to a thick sirup over 
a direct fire, and the 
sugar allowed to 
crystallize out. The 
molasses was then 
sold as open-kettle 
or sugar-house mo- 
lasses. This plan is >i 
occasionally followed 
yet. But the great- 
est forward step in 
modern scientific 
sugar-making was 
the discovery that, 
if cane juices can be 
boiled at a low tem- 
perature, more sugar 
can be made. That 
is, if the juices are 

cooked over a fire, the high temperature used will invert a 
large amount of the sugar, or put it in such a condition 
that it will not crystallize. When the juices, or thin sirups, 
are put in a large, air-tight vessel and the air pumped out, 
the sirups will boil at a very low temperature, and less 
sugar will be hiverted. The use of the vacuum-pan gives 



Fig. ()1. — Cutting Sugar Cane, Louisiana 



174 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

large quantities of sugar and little molasses. The old 
method gave less sugar and more molasses. 

Products from a Ton of Cane. — A ton of Louisiana or 
Texas cane, worked in a good factory and refinery, will 
make about 140 pounds of sugar and some two or three 
gallons of low-grade molasses, called " black strap^'' which 
is used for feeding stock. Some centrifugal molasses of 
better grade will also be obtained. A ton of tropical cane 
will make from 200 to 250 pounds of sugar and probably 
three gallons of low-grade molasses. 

Impure Juices. — If cane is very green, it contains much 
invert sugar, or non-cry stallizable sugar, called glucose. A 
pound of glucose keeps more than another pound of real 
sugar, called sucrose^ from crystallizing. If the cane juice 
has other impurities in it, these keep still more sucrose 
from forming crystals. Hence a cane juice showing no 
more than 10 degrees, Brix, would hardly be worth work- 
ing for sugar, because low density always means high 
impurity of juice. 

Grinding Season. — When frost comes, tremendous 
•efforts are put forth by the sugar planters to grind all 
the cane before it begins to spoil. The mills usually run 
only 75 days. The machinery is so massive and costly 
that the investment is very large in proportion to work 
done. 

In the tropics, mills run 150 days during the year. In 
this country the short grinding season and the green con- 
dition of the cane make the manufacturing of the cane 
expensive. Good mills in the tropics have worked at a 
total manufacturing cost of about 60 cents a ton of cane 



SUGAR CANE 175 

handled, or about a quarter of a cent a pound for the 
sugar made. But in our sugar belt the cane is greener, 
the juices contain less sugar and need more boiling, the 
bagasse^ or ground cane stalks, do not furnish sufficient 
fuel, so that the manufacturing cost of each pound of sugar 
is perhaps three times as great as it is in the best mills 
in the tropics. The large mills in Louisiana and Texas 
buy cane from the small farmers, paying about $3.50 a 
ton for it loaded on the cars. With a thirty-ton yield, it 
should be a profitable crop to grow. 

QUESTIONS 

Where is sugar cane grown in the United States, and for what 
purposes is it grown ? Where is it grown for sugar making? Does 
sugar cane mature in the United States? What part of the cane do 
people of the tropics plant? How is the sugar cane kept over winter 
in the United States? How is it planted? What sort of fertilizer 
does it need? What country grows the most sugar cane aiid rice per 
acre? Is sugar cane very hard to cultivate? How much cane does 
land make in the United States? Where are the yields largest? 
When does cane get sweet in the United States? How is sirup made 
from the cane? What kind of land makes the finest quality of sirup? 
What sort of instrument would enable you to boil your sirup just 
right? How can sirups be kept fresh? How was sugar formerly 
made in Louisiana? What is the principle of the vacuum pan, and 
why does it make more sugar? Why is the manufacture of sugar in 
the United States more costly than in the tropics ? 

Experiment. — If your father does not put uj) sirup in cans or 
sealed jugs, suppose you get a few clean bottles and new stoppers. 
Run hot sirup into these and stop up thoroughly while hot and keep 
till next summer, when barreled sirup is of bad quality. Show 
samples to your teacher and schoolmates. 



CHAPTER XXV 

THE SWEET POTATO 

The Sweet Potato has always been an important crop 
in the South. Thin, loamy soils produce fine crops of the 
very best quality. The long-leaf pine soils are ideal for 
this crop. When grown on heavy lime, clay, or bottom 
land, the sweet potato has a poor flavor, and does not keep 
well. 

Varieties. — If, indeed, the farmers of every community 
have not provided themselves with suitable varieties of 
other common crops, they certainly have done so with sweet 
potatoes. Perhaps the bunch, or vineless, yam has not 
been distributed so widely as its merits would justify. 
Experiments indicate that this kind makes better yields 
during seasons of drought than most of the other kinds. 
Then its bunch habit of growth permits better and late 
cultivation, and this of itself makes it stand drought 
better. 

Preparation and Fertilizing. — The sweet potato needs a 
good high ridge, or bed, to grow in. The soil should 
be plowed deep enough to prevent the potatoes from 
making above ground so as to be exposed to frost, fowls, 
animals, etc.; and at the same time shallow enough to 
prevent them from forming so deep in the ground that 
they will be cut by the plow in digging. 

176 



THE SWEET POTATO 



177 




Fig. 62. — Hill of vSweet Potatoes 



Sweet potatoes do not need rich soil, and they are as 
easy to fertilize as cotton. Some two or three hundred 
pounds of good cotton fertilizer to the acre will be ample 
for this crop. Anj^ thin 
land that will make a quar- 
ter of a bale of cotton to 
the acre will make fine 
sweet potatoes without the 
help of fertilizers, if it is 
first allowed to grow weeds 
a year or two. 

Planting. — Some farm- 
ers plant the small, stringy 
potatoes, which they cut into little pieces and plant as they 
do Irish potatoes. A more general practice is to bed out 
the potatoes in early spring, laying them close together in a 
bed made rich with manure. They will sprout and make 
slips in April and May. These slips are pulled from the 
bed and transplanted in the field where they are to grow. 
More slips come up from the bed, and these are likewise 
transplanted. As soon as the slips in the field grow vines 
a foot long, these are cut and transplanted. The crop is 
thus multiplied from the bed and from the vines in tlie 
field, and sometimes plantings are continued into August 
in the Gulf and South Atlantic States. Potato slips or 
vines should be planted only in clean beds. Otherwise, 
the crop will become foul with weeds and grass, and this 
will greatly diminish the yield. 

Labor in Planting. — The time required to set out the 
vines and slips is the greatest obstacle in the way of large 



178 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

})lantings. The plants should be set two feet apart in 
four-foot rows. As the great bulk of the crop is planted 
from vine cuttings, much time can be saved by opening 
the row, or bed, Avith a small plow to receive the vines. 
Lay the butt ends of tlie vines across the furrow and 
step on them to press them down, letting the tops 
extend out over the edge of the furrow all on one side. 
Then cover by running a small plow on the opposite side 
of the furrow from the tops of the vines and throwing 
dirt into the furrow, but not far enough to cover the 
tops. By this plan, very rapid and satisfactory work can 
be done. Three or four hands and one horse can put out 
tliree acres a day. 

Harvesting and Keeping. — Cultivation should continue 
as late in the season as the growth of the vines will per- 
mit. Though the vines make fine grazing for cattle, 
tramping is likely to bruise the potatoes so as to cause 
fungous diseases that make the potatoes hard to keep. 
The crop should be dug before a severe frost. If hard 
frost catches the crop in the ground, the ends of many 
potatoes will be injured, fungous diseases will enter, and 
the whole crop will be liable to rot. 

If the vines are cut by a sharp rolling colter, or some 
similar tool run in each middle, they will not be difficult 
to handle. Whatever plow or digger is used, it should 
not be run deep enough to cut the potatoes or bruise 
them. Barring off with a turn plow and splitting the 
beds o})en with a big lister is a good plan. No other 
arrangement which the author has yet seen is better to 
keep the crop than the small cone-shaped "hill," or 



tup: swep:t potato 



179 



" bank," so made that the potatoes can be kept dry by 
laj^ers of bark, straw, or corn stalks, and covered wi^h 
dirt to keep out the cold. 




Fig. 63. — Digging Sweet Potatoes 

Yield and Profits. — The sweet potato is now being 
largely shipped and sold at very profitable prices, bring- 
ing from 50 cents to f 1 a bushel at the shipping station. 
As 200 to 300 bushels are very common yields, it is easy 
to see that the crop is profitable. 

Canned Potatoes. — Of late years, canning factories are 
buying large quantities at good prices, and putting them 
up as they put up tomatoes, corn, and other vegetables. 
No product keeps better in cans, and no canned goods 
are meeting a better demand. Tliere is much more 
food value in a can of potatoes than in a can of tomatoes 
or corn of the same size, and the cost of canning them is 
comparatively small. Some farmers are buying small 



180 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

canning outfits costing from fifty dollars down as low as 
ten dollars, and putting up their surplus fruits and vege- 
tables of all kinds. 

As Stock Food. — As a stock food, the sweet potato is 
highly esteemed. About three and one-third bushels are 
equal to a bushel of corn in feeding value. If it were 
not for the extra trouble and expense of growing and 
handling a heavy, watery crop of this kind, and the un- 
certainty of keeping them sound, sweet potatoes might 
largely displace corn as a farm feed. At present they 
are often grown for hog feed, and the hogs are allowed 
to do the harvesting. As the hogs eat both vine and 
tubers, a reasonable acreage of potatoes can be grown 
very profitably for this purpose. A peanut crop near 
enough for the hogs to graze on will increase the good 
results, because the two foods together balance each other. 
If the two crops are separated by a fence, the hogs can 
easily be made to graze partly on each every day by 
simply shifting them from one field to the other. 

QUESTIONS 

How would you grow sweet potatoes? What arrangement is 
suggested for saving labor in planting out vines? Why not let 
cattle run over the potato field? How can potatoes be kept best? 
What is said of canned sweet potatoes? What is a fair yield for an 
acre of sweet potatoes? What amount of sweet potatoes would be 
equal to a bushel of corn for feeding ? 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE COWPEA AND PEANUT 

The Cowpea. — This is one of the most valuable crops 
grown in any country. The farmers of the South, failing 
properly to estimate its importance, do not grow it as 
extensive^ as they should. 

Varieties. — The value of this pea as hay, as a fertili- 
zer, and as a crop in a rotation, has already been men- 
tioned. There are numerous varieties, some ripening in 
seventy days from planting and others requiring the 
whole season. The cowpea was originally a tropical 
plant, and in the tropics varieties may now be seen that 
run over the tops of large trees, and have pods two feet 
long. In this country these kinds would be caught by 
frost before they matured seed. 

Curing the Vines. — Pea vines are usually considered 
difficult to save for hay. If they are not cut until they 
get old enough for a few pods to ripen, the curing is not 
so difficult as it is generally supposed to be. One or two, 
and sometimes four, tons of hay, equal to clover and 
nearly equal to alfalfa in value, may be saved from an 
acre of pea vines. 

Saving Seed. — The seed of the cowpea is now being 
saved in some of the states by mowing the vines when the 
peas are ripe, and running them through a threshing 

181 



182 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

machine. This crop yiekls from eight to twenty-five 
bushels of seed to the acre. Where the seed can be saved 
cheaply, they are very profitable, as they sell for from one 
dollar to three dollars a bushel. 

In the southern part of the Gulf States, two crops of 
some varieties can be raised in one year on the same land. 
One kind, a white, black-eyed variety, now being gener- 
ally sold by grocers, is fast displacing the navy bean in 
the markets. This kind retails at about six cents a pound 
in the grocery stores. You might grow a crop and make 
some money from it. 

Peas for Hogs. — This crop has for a long time been 
esteemed as a liog food. Certain experiments in Arkan- 
sas, Mississippi, and Alabama indicate that an acre of 
good peas gathered by hogs will produce from 300 to 400 
pounds of gain in live weight. 

Cultivation. — Peas are often sown broadcast and plowed 
under, but they do better if drilled in rows wide enough 
to permit cultivation. On thin land 150 pounds acid 
phosphate will make them yield a large crop. They need 
no nitrogenous fertilizer, as they can get nitrogen from 
the air. In some sections a little potash salt with the acid 
phosphate will be profitable. 

Peanuts: Their Uses. — This crop has been grown rather 
largely in some of the states for a long time, but the 
United States has never grown more than enough to 
supply the demand for nuts for parching. Peanuts have 
been somewhat largely grown for hog feed, the Jiogs 
generally being allowed to gather the crop. Different 
experiments have usually shown that an acre of good 



THE COWPEA AND PEANUT 



183 



nuts will produce about 500 pounds of growth in young 
hogs. Peanuts are also cured, vine, nut, and all, for hay 
for horses, cattle, and sheep. A good yield of this hay, 
when well cured, is two tons to the acre. 




Fig. 64. — Spanish Peanuts 

Varieties. — The variety generally grown for hay is a 
small, quick-maturing kind, called the Spanish peanut. 
When the vines are pulled up, practically all the nuts 
adhere to the vines. The nuts of this variety are shelled 
by machinery, and used in candies and confections, and for 
parching and selling as salted peanuts. Somewhat larger 
kinds, one of them being called the Virginia nut, are 



184 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



grown more largely for tiie parching trade, and have 
been bringing a very high price for* some years. 

Climate and Soil. — All the uplands of the South and 
Southwest are well suited to this crop. The light-colored, 
sandy lands make the smoothest and cleanest nut for tlie 
market, but clay and lime lands make larger yields. In 
the sections infested with the boll weevil there is great 
interest in this crop as a market crop. 

Peanut Oil. — If more nuts are produced than the 
parching trade will take, the cotton-seed oil mills, with the 

addition of a lit- 
tle extra machin- 
ery, could crush 
them for oil and 
cake. A bushel 
of nuts will pro- 
duce from one to 
one and a half 
gallons of oil and 









1 




«>% 




ii 








"" ¥"' ' 


•i 






\ 






^ 


^^ 



Fig. 65. — SavinCx Peanuts ten tO fifteen 

pounds of cake 
fully as rich as cQtton-seed cake. Peanut oil is a high- 
priced oil, and the cake is worth more than cotton-seed 
cake, because it is suitable for feeding horses and hogs. 
At prices lately prevailing for peanut oil, the mills could 
afford to pay from sixty to seventy-five cents for a bushel 
of nuts and still make a very fair profit. At such prices a 
good profit could be made by the grower, as fifty bushels 
can easily be made on an acre, and the crop can be 
threshed cheaply by machinery. An acre of peanuts will 



THE COWPEA AND PEANUT 185 

yield about a ton of good hay or straw, in addition to 
the nnts. 

Cultivation. — Peanuts, like peas, need only acid phos- 
phate or phosphate and a little potash salt as a fertilizer. 
Occasionally lime may be needed on very sandy land to 
make the larger kinds fill their pods well. 

Peanuts are often grown in corn, or after oats, just as 
peas are, and sometimes take the place of peas in the 
rotation of crops. They are more expensive to grow than 
peas, as they need more hoeing. Good, well-selected, 
clean peanuts are selling in Southern cities for eight cents 
a pound. Suppose you grow an acre, making fifty bushels, 
hoAv much money could you make ? 

QUESTIONS 

What are the many uses of the cowpea? What suggestion is 
made for savhig the hay? What sort of machinery is being used to 
save the seed? Where can two crops of cowpeas be grown on the 
same land in the. same season ? What article of food is being dis- 
placed by the cowpea? How much pork will an acre of cowpeas 
produce? What fertilizer would you use for peas? What are the 
uses of the peanut? How are they handled as stock food? What 
kind are generally grown for stock food? How are peanuts shelled? 
What kind is grown largely for parching? What sort of land makes 
the best market nut? What kind of land will make largest yields? 
How could oil mills handle peanuts? How much oil and cake would 
a bushel make? What value ought this to give the peanut for crush- 
ing in the mills? How much vines or hay will an acre make? 



CHAPTER XXVII 

TOBACCO 

Tobacco is one of the big crops of tlie United States. 
A very large amount of tobacco is sold for domestic use 
and for export ; also cigar tobaccos of such qualities as 
are not grown in this country in sufficient quantity are 
imported in large quantities. 

Tobacco was being grown and used by the Indians of 
both North and South America when Europeans dis- 
covered the Western World. 

When Magellan discovered the Philippine Islands in 
1521, his ships first anchored in the Bay of Cebu, where 
the king of the Philippines lived. The king sent his most 
trusted minister out to see what manner of visitors had 
come. The minister in his little boat circled around the 
ships nearly all night, and observed closely all that took 
place. Before day he went back to shore and reported to 
the king that the new-comers were great, white giants 
with hooked noses and red eyes, who ate stones, drank 
fire, and blew smoke out of their nostrils. On receiving" 
this report, the king killed a large number of carabao 
(water buffalo) and pigs, prepared a great feast, invited 
the Spaniards ashore, and gave tliem the country. 

As Magellan's expedition had tarried some weeks in 
Brazil, where the sailors could have learned to smoke, they 

186 



TOBACCO 



187 



probably were smoking, and this gave rise to the wonder- 
ful story about their drinking fire and blowing smoke out 
of their nostrils. 

Influence of Soil. — Very few plants are so much in- 
fluenced by the kind of land they grow on as is tobacco. 
If the seed of Havana cigar tobacco, which is grown on 
sandy land, is planted on the stiff clay and limy land tl>at 
grows the heavy chewing tobacco well, it will make a to- 
bacco more like chewing tobacco than cigar tobacco. The 
slightest change in soil materially changes the grade of 
tobacco. 

The great bulk of the chewing tobaccos are grown in 
Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and 
North Carolina. 
The states of 
Pennsylvania, 
Connecticut, 
Ohio, Wiscon- 
sin, and New 
York grow 
large quantities 
of cigar tobacco. 

Shade-grown 
Tobacco. — 
Some very fine 
cigar tobacco is 
being grown under partial shade in Georgia, Florida, 
Alabama, and Texas. These tobaccos are grown on well- 
drained loamy or sandy types of land. The field is en- 
tirely covered with a thin cheese cloth supported on suit- 












Tobacco growing under Cheese-cloth 
Shade 



188 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

able framework. Sometimes the frames are partially 
covered with narrow slats that shut out part of the sun- 
light. This partial shade makes the leaf thin and of most 
desirable quality. The covering protects the crop from 
being whipped by winds, and to some extent from insects. 
Often the expense of covering the land and producing the 
crop amounts to several hundred dollars an acre. This 
investment is, however, profitable, as it sometimes assures 
the production of a crop of 1,500 pounds of tobacco, worth 
from twenty-five cents to one dollar a pound. 

Sumatra Tobacco. — Good Sumatra w^rapper leaves for 
cigars cost the manufacturer, after paying duty, about 
^3.00 a pound. But the leaves are so fine and thin that 
a pound will wrap from 500 to 1000 cigars. The planters 
of Sumatra use Chinese labor under a system of peonage 
that assures extreme care in handling the tobacco at every 
.stage, and hence they make the finest leaf in the world. 
Ordinary American-grown wrappers require six to eight 
pounds to wrap a thousand cigars. 

The shade-growing metliod enables Southern growers 
to make leaf approaching the Sumatra leaf in value. 
Havana tobacco is also coming to be largely grown on the 
light lands of the South. It makes a filler tobacco nearly 
as good as the Cuban product. Grown under partial 
shade, the Havana tobacco turns out a good proportion of 
desirable wrapper leaves. 

Fertilizing. — Tobacco needs lil)eral fertilizing, and is 
generally supposed to need a good percentage of potash 
in its fertilizer. It contains an unusually large percentage 
of potash, as well as nitrogen, but the analysis of a crop is 



TOBACCO 18!> 

not always a safe guide as to its fertilizer needs. This 
potash should never be in the form of potassium chloride, 
or the tobacco will not burn well. Potassium sulphate is 
the form in which the potash should be applied. Tobacco 
grown within five or ten miles of the sea contains too 
much chlorine to burn well. 

Tobacco growing and handling must be specially studied 
in order to be well understood. Students should send 
for bulletins of the Department of Agriculture and of the 
Experiment Stations of the states that grow large quanti- 
ties of tobacco. 

qup:stions 

Where was tobacco originally found? What story is told of Ma- 
gellan's discovery of the Philippines V What kind of land grows heavy 
chewing tobacco? What kind of land grows the cigar tobacco? 
What states grow most of the chewing tobacco? Tell where shade- 
grown tobacco is made. Give an idea of the expense and returns on 
shade-grown tobacco. Where and under what conditions is the 
best cigar tobacco in the world grown ? What precautions must be 
taken in fertilizins: tobacco? 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

SORGHUM, KAFIR, AND MILO-MAIZE 

Origin, Uses, and Adaptability. — These three, together 
with chicken-corn, broom-corii, doiira-corn, etc., have been 
grown for ages in the East Indies and in Africa. The sor- 
ghnnis have been cultivated largely in the United States 
only during the last twent}^ years. At first the sweet 
sorghum was grown mostly for sirup-making, but is now 
more largely used for hay. The n on -saccharine kinds are 
very largely cultivated for grain in the semiarid parts of 
the West, where Indian corn is uncertain. Although tropi- 
cal plants, these sorghums have made themselves perfectly 
at home in the northern part of the United States, and 
will flourish where the climate is too cool for Indian corn. 
Their great feature is their ability to stand drought. They 
appear to become almost dormant in a dry time and to wait 
for weeks, and even months, for rain ; and, after being 
watered, they grow remarkabl}', and make good crops. 
These plants can also stand wet conditions better than 
most plants ; they will grow on poorer land and with 
poorer culture than most crops, and will stand considerable 
alkali. They are great, hardy, vigorous, giant grasses 
that thrive under most all conditions. The tremendous 
growth in the cultivation of these sorghums in late years 
lias been one of the marvelous things about American 
iigriculture. 

190 



SORGHUM, KAFIR, AND MILO-MAIZE 



191 



For Hay. — The sweet sorghum is largely sown broad- 
cast or drilled like wheat, at the rate of about a bushel of 
seed per acre, to make hay. It generally produces two 
crops of hay in the season, if planted early. In the Gulf 
States it is often planted about April. In the states 
farther north, May and June plantings will be safer. This 
plant makes large crops of coarse but nutritious hay. For 



m9 



i>^m 



^^pm, 



Fig. G7. — Harvesting Sorghum 

early plantings it is necessary to sow it thick so the stalks 
will be small. Otherwise the stalks will be too coarse and 
woody to be eaten well when they get dr3^ Where sor- 
ghum can be matured just before frost, large stalks may be 
cut and stacked, and it will keep well all winter with the 
juice in the stalks, and is greatly relished by stock. In the 
dry belt sorghum ought to be planted in drills wide enough 
to be worked a little, if possible, in order to save moisture. 



192 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

Planting and Culture. — The non-saccharine sorghums 
are usually planted in drills. A favorite plan in the dry 
country is to run a lister with a planter attachment so as 
to drill the seed in the bottom of the lister furrow. This 
plan assures a stand, and the gradual working of dirt to 
the crop makes it stand drought well. On the plains these 
crops are often put in by sowing seed in every third or 
fourth furrow made by a turn plow while breaking the 
raw sod. The next furrow covers the seed with two or 
three inches of turf, and not another stroke of work is done 
until time to gather the crop. The hard, unbroken soil 
at the bottom of the shallow plow furrow appears to be 
suitable feeding ground for the roots of these hardy plants, 
and the coating of unrotted grass sod appears to let in the 
rain water and to serve as a mulch to keep the water from 
evaporating. Excellent crops are made in this way. As 
land becomes older and weeds begin to appear, regular 
cultivation becomes necessar3^ 

Kafir and Milo Maize. — These crops always make more 
grain per acre than Indian corn, and when seasons are 
unfavorable may make twice or three times as much. 
They are often cut near the ground with corn harvesters 
and shocked in the field. From the shocks the grain and 
the stover are fed ; sometimes the cattle are turned in 
to help themselves and sometimes it is hauled to them. 
When the grain is fed whole to cattle or horses, a great 
deal of it is undigested ; but if fed in winter there need be 
nothing lost. The undigested corn keeps perfectly in the 
dry, cold winters of the plains until found and eaten by 
hogs and fowls. The planting of these crops is done late 



SOKGIIUM, KAFIR, AND :\IILO-MAIZK 



19a 



enough so they will ripen just before frost. Then if any 
grain is knocked down, it keeps. If labor is scarce, horses 
and cattle are turned on the field to do the harvestinsf. 
What they trample down keeps perfectly for the hogs. 
Grinding. — These crops are made about as digestible as 




Fig. ()8. - Field of Kafir Corn 

Indian corn by grinding. In fact, all experiments indicate 
that ground kafir or milo is about nine-tenths as valuable, 
pound for pound, as corn meal for feeding animals. Some 
people, therefore, thresh and grind these crops. To save 
the expense of handling too much stover, some have little 
attachments fastened on to a wagon bed for cutting the 



194 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

heads and loading them on the wagons. In this shape the 
grain is easy to handle and thresh and grind. 

Diseases. — In the humid sections of the South, where 
only the sweet sorghum is grown to any extent, the seeds 
have been blighting of late years, so that the people cannot 
save their own seed. These are bought, usually from 
western Kansas and Oklahoma. 

Grazing. — Occasionally sorghums are planted thick for 
grazing, and, if not grazed too closely, stand this treat- 
ment well. It is used more for grazing hogs than for the 
other stock. Hogs are turned on it Avhen tlie crop is knee 
high, and continue to graze it until it ripens, when they 
chew it and eat the seed. 

Poisons in Sorghum. — Green sorghum has often killed 
cattle. This seems to be caused by the poison called 
" prussic acid " that is occasionally found in green sor- 
ghum, especially at tlie end of a long drouglit. The East 
Indian farmers knew of tliis poisonous property of sor- 
ghum ages ago, and learned to cut and partially dry the 
feed before giving it to their oxen and buffalo. By 
partial drying, tlie poison disappears in large measure. 

Sorghum Alcohol. — Sweet sorghum is seriously con- 
sidered for making alcohol for cooking, heating, lighting, 
and ])ower on the Plains, where fuel is scarce and expen- 
sive. An acre of good sorghum would easily produce two 
hundred gallons of pure alcohol, and the expense of manu- 
facture is not great. Where other fuel is so costly, alcohol 
may easily be worth thirty to fifty cents a gallon for many 
uses. Broom Corn is now being largely grown in West 
Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Being a sorghum, it 



SORGHUM, KAFIR, AND MILO-MAIZE 195 

stands drought well, and cures beautifully in the dry 
climate of the West. No sheds are needed to cure the 
brush into the best quality of product. A fair yield is 
700 pounds an acre, worth three or four cents a pound. 

QUESTIONS 

What two classes of sorghum are there? Give the origin of these 
crops. Where are they largely grown ? For what four purposes are 
they grown ? Under what extremes of climate and soil can sorghums 
thrive? In what ways are these crops planted? How are they 
gathered? Why is there little loss of these grain crops on the Plains? 
How do the people harvest and handle the grain ? What of the com- 
parative yield of Indian corn and kafir? What of the comparative 
feeding values of Indian corn and kafir? Tell somethhig of broom 
corn. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE VELVET AND SOY BEANS, ALFALFA, HAIRY VETCH 

Velvet Bean. — This is a large tropical bean that makes 
vines as large as a plow line, and often fifty feet long, 
bearing seed in pods covered with a fuzz resembling 
velvet. 

This bean needs the whole season to grow in, and even 
then does not mature seed farther north than Florida and 
South Texas. It needs a little cultivation till it begins 
to cover the ground, after which it makes a dense mass of 
tangled vines and leaves, some three or four feet deep. 
No other crop grows better on poor sandy land, makes 
such a dense shade, or accumulates so much nitrogen from 
the air. As before stated, an acre will contain two hun- 
dred pounds of nitrogen, worth at commercial fertilizer 
prices, thirty-six dollars. 

The vines are seldom cut for hay, but are pastured by 
cattle. The enrichment of the land is usually the main 
object. In Florida, large crops of the seed are gathered 
and ground into meal, which makes a rich food for stock. 

The few seed necessary to plant an acre are not expen- 
sive, even where they must be purchased every year. 

The Soy Bean. — This is a Japanese bunch bean. It is 
extensively cultivated in Japan and China for the oil that 
is pressed from it. In some parts of this country it is 

196 



VELVET AND SOY BEANS, ALFALFA, VETCH lU" 



ground into meal and mixed Avith corn meal for hogs and 
other live stock. A little soy-bean meal added to the 
feed of live stock never fails to give an increase or gain in 
weight. This is • 
due to the large 
amount of protein 
and oil in the 
bean. The soy- 
bean vines, or 
straw, do not 
make as good 
feed as cowpea 










w 



^ 






Ji 



or peanut vines. 
Tlie.crop has not 
become very pop- 
ular south and 
east of Kansas 
and Oklahoma. 

Alfalfa: Culti- 
vation.— No crop 
has attracted 
more attention, 
and no crop has been tried oftener and has failed more 
frequently, than alfalfa. As it needs very rich land, it 
does remarkably well under irrigation, on the arid and the 
semiarid land in the West. In the East it is probable 
that the only lands rich enough for it are the lime prairies 
and the buckshot bottoms. There are some indications 
that it is a plant which requires large amounts of lime 
in the soil. When young, it is extremely tender, and easily 



Fig. (59. — Soy Bean 



198 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

killed by grass and weeds. The crab grass of the sandy 
lands of the South will soon choke it out. 

Alfalfa does best when seeded in the fall. In the Gulf 
States, if the land is kept clean of weeds and grass in the 
sx3ring and samraer, and plowed and harrowed until 
planting time in September or October, the best success 
may be expected. It is a mistake to recommend the 




Fig. 70. — Stacking Alfalfa Hay 

planting of alfalfa on ordinary sandy, loamy, or clay land 
outside of the arid and semiarid sections. 

In some of tlie arid sections alfalfa is known to have 
lived and grown thirty or more years from one planting. 
In dry, porous soils its roots have been known to grow 
forty feet deep. In the humid sections thirty pounds of 
seed per acre are recommended ; in arid sections half this, 
as all crops stool and sucker more on rich arid lands. 
Seed should be planted as carefully as turnips are planted. 

Uses ; Curing and Saving Hay. — Where it does tlirive it is 
a crop of great value, giving each year four or five cuttings 
of the finest hay known. It also greatly improves the 
fertilitv of the land. In the humid sections considerable 



VELVET AND SOY BEANS, ALFALFA, VETCIl 1U9 

trouble is experienced in saving alfalfa hay. The heaviest 
crops are in the spring, when conditions are not good for 
curing hay. One plan practiced Avith success is to throw 
it into cocks, or tall piles, of two or three hundred pounds 
each when it is partially cured and cover each pile Avith 
a cheap cap of cloth or paper and let the hay remain 
ten days or two weeks, when it is put in barn or stack. 
No certain rules that will fit everybody's case can be given 
for saving hay. All hay in humid climates should be 
stacked a month before baling. 

Hairy Vetch; Habits and Uses. — In order that this 
crop, which has already been mentioned, may not be con- 
fused with other vetches, its scientific name, Vicia villosa, is 
given. The seed should be sown in the fall at the rate 
of from a half-bushel to a bushel to the acre, about as oats 
are sown. It makes only a small growth in winter, but 
in early spring it grows with remarkable rapidity. By 
May, in the Gulf States, it is ready to cut for liay. It 
dies in June, shedding its crop of seed on the ground ; 
these seed come up in the fall again, and thus the vetch 
becomes a wild plant, but it is never hard to get rid of. If 
it is cut for liay before it makes seed, or if it is grazed 
closely by stock, it disappears. Plowing it under as a 
green manure before it seeds also kills it. 

Close grazing in winter and early spring does not hurt 
it. If stock are taken off it before it gets ready to make 
seed, it recovers with remarkable rapidity. 

The best way to start the vetch is to mix about fifteen 
pounds of seed to two bushels of oats and sow to each acre. 
After the first sowing the vetch will come up each fall. 



200 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

Sorghum may be grown between the crops of vetch. 
The vetch is a more vigorous grower than the bur clover, 
and enriches the land faster. It flourishes on all classes 
of fairly well-drained land, 

QUKSTIOXS 

Tell something about the velvet l>eaii. What is it particularly 
valuable for? Where is the bean made into meal? Where does the 
soy bean come from ? What is its special value in producing a mixed 
feed? What ingredients of feed stuff is the soy bean rich in? Where 
in the United States has alfalfa proved a certain crop? Where has it 
pi'oved uncertain? Does it need rich land? What lands in the South- 
ern States have grown it well ? Can it stand weeds very well when 
young? At what season should it be seeded? How should the land 
be treated during the summer before seeding? Ls alfalfa likely to 
succeed on ordinary sandy and loamy lands? Does it improve the land, 
and if so, why? Is it very difficult to save for hay? What sort of 
plant is the hairy vetch? When does it make its growth? Will it 
sow its own seed and come every year after once being seeded? Is 
it very hard to get rid of ? What crop is it easily started with ? What 
crop may be grown on the land after the vetch dies in the spring? 



CHAPTER XXX 



THE CLOVERS AND MINOR CROPS 



Red Clover. -^ This plant tlirives in tlie northern and 
eastern parts of the United States, and does well as far 
south as Tennessee and as far west as Kansas and Okla- 
homa. The crop is not a 
reliable one for the Gulf 
States, and is not grown 
largely in the West, where 
alfalfa thrives best. 

This plant requires fertile 
soil and careful preparation 
of land. Much of the soil of 
our Southern States is said 
not to be good enough to 
grow it. 

Red clover is a biennial ; 
that is, one planting makes 
crops for two years and dies. 
It makes big crops of hay 
and a large growth of root 
and stubble. As it secures nitrogen from the air, its 
roots and stubble greatly enrich the land and make it 
open and porous. Corn grown on clover sod always 
makes a large yield. 

201 




Rkd Clover 



202 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

In some parts of the North red clover is used in the fol- 
lowing rotation : two years clover, one or two years corn, 
one year wheat or oats, and perhaps one year of Irish 
potatoes. The fall is much the best time to start red 
clover in the southern part of its territory. Fifteen 
pounds of seed to an acre sown on hmd well enough 
prepared for turnips should bring success, if the land is 
of suitable kind. 

Bur clover is an annual; that is, it comes up in the 
fall, grows all winter and early spring, and dies, root 
and top, after making seed that are shed off on the 
ground. Cattle do not api)ear to relish this })lant as 
they do some others, but they have been known to winter 
on it and be in good condition in the spring. It is sel- 
dom or never cut for hay. JJur clover grows on almost 
any kind of soil. The author has seen it grow well on 
strong lime lands and on the poorer sands of the long- 
leaf pine region. Wherever in the South there is rain 
enough to bring it up in the fall it will grow to advantage. 

Bermuda sod is an ideal place for bur clover, because 
the clover dies about the time the Bermuda is ready to 
grow in the spring. The Ijermuda turf prevents the 
cattle from bogging when they are grazing the clover in 
the winter or spring. 

Bur clover may be grown in rotation with sorghum or 
other crops which bear late planting. The sorghum may 
be planted in May after the clover is dead. The clover 
seed shed in the spring will come up in the sorghum 
stubble when the fall rains come, and enrich the land for 
the next year's crop of sorghum. 



THE CLOVERS AND MINOR CROPS 



203 



Crimson Clover. — This is an annual clover that is 
often planted in the fall in Maryland, Virginia, and other 
states. It is frequently sown in corn during the last 
working in August, and used as a winter cover crop to 
protect the land and en- 
rich it. It is highly 
recommended for sowing 
in orchards, as it com- 
pletes its growth and 
dies in early spring be- 
fore the orchard begins 
to need moisture. Crim- 
son clover is sometimes 
saved for hay, but is more 
often used for grazing. 

It has not generally 
succeeded in the central 
and western Gulf States, 
where tlie bur clover 
appears to be a much 
hardier and more desir- 
able plant. 

Mammoth Clover. — 
Tliis giant red clover is 
a much larger, coarser plant than ordinary red clover. 
The stems are so coarse that it does not make so good a 
quality of hay as the smaller kind. It is grown largely 
for green forage and for enriching the land. 

Melilotus or Sweet Clover. — This plant is regarded as 
a weed in the North. In the South it grows only on 




Cri:.ison (lover 



204 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



rotten lime-rock land, or other land rich in lime. It will 
grow on bare lime-rock, if it can send its roots into a 
crack of the rock'. As it makes an enormous growth, and 
gets nitrogen from the air, it helps to restore fertility to 
poor land. It is a bieiniial, and makes the largest growth 
in its second year. 

While it is not relished by stock, as some plants are, 
it is very nutritious. It is used botli for grazing and 

for ha}^ When 
once started on 
poor, washed 
lime land, the 
plant keeps gro w- 
ing as a weed 
until killed out 
by grazing or 
by cultivation. 
Seed may be 
thrown on land 
without prepa- 
ration at the rate of fifteen pounds per acre. Better 
results are secured if land is plowed or disked. 

Mexican Clover. — This plant, which is not a true clover 
at all, flourishes in the sandy, cultivated lands of South 
Georgia, Florida, and the southern part of the other Gulf 
States. It is an annual that comes up in the cornfields 
after the corn is laid by, and in oatfields after the oats are 
cut. It makes excellent hay, which is generally cut and 
saved late in the fall. 

Florida Beggar Weed. — This plant also flourishes in 




Fk.. 7.> 



Florida Kkggak Wkkd 



THE CLOVERS AND MINOR CROPS 



205 



sandy lands, coming up volunteer late in the season on culti- 
vated fields. It is found mostly in Florida, South Georgia, 
and Alabama. It is a true legume, and hence enriches 
the land it grows on. It makes good hay and grazino-. 




Fig. 74. — Rape Field 



Rape. — Belonging to the same family as the collard, 
cabbage, and turnip, rape is a fine forage plant for hogs, 
and especially for sheep. It makes its best growth when 
sown in the fall on rich and well-prepared land. When it 
is large enough for good grazing, hogs and sheep are 
turned on it and allowed to eat it down somewhat closely* 



20() 



elemp:nts of agriculture 



It sprouts out again and continues to grow. It has often 
been found to afford food equal in value to peanuts and 
cowpeas, although in order to fatten hogs it needs supple- 
menting with grain feed. It is 
sown in the same way as turnips. 

Chufas, or Grass Nuts. — This is 
a crop often grown for hogs on the 
thin, sandy lands of the South. It 
is greatly relished by hogs, and 
they root up the crop of sweet, 
juicy nuts. The chufa is not quite 
so valuable for pork-making as pea- 
nuts, and it is exhaustive to the 
land. The crop keeps well in the 
ground all winter, however, and 
this affords good feed for hogs after 
the Spanish peanut has rotted. 

The chufa, being very sweet and 
agreeable to the taste, is bultivated 
and sold in Spain for human food. 
It is planted very much as peanuts 
are. 

Jerusalem artichokes are planted 
and cultivated somewhat like the 
Irish potato. They make large crops 
of fleshy, starchy tubers, fully as 
nutritious as Irish potatoes. They are grown to afford 
grazing for hogs, but are not relished well enough to 
make a fattening food like sweet potatoes. They keep 
well in the ground all winter. The artichoke and chufas 




Fig. 75. — Jerusalem 
Artichoke 



THE CLOVER AND MINOR CROPS 207 

are good late winter pasture crops. They may be grazed 
by hogs after peanuts and sweet potatoes are gone. 

QUESTIONS 

Wliere is red clover largely grown? Does it need good soil? Is 
red clover an annual, a biennial, or a perennial? Does the red clover 
improve the land ? Tell something of the bur clover. When is it 
planted? When does it grow and die? Is it suitable to all kinds of 
land? How does it do growing on Bermuda sod? What other crops 
can be grown on the land after the bur clover dies in the spring? 
Will it come up volunteer in the fall when once seeded? What is 
the habit and growth of the crimson clover? Has it proved as 
successful as the bur clover? What sort of land does melilotus, or 
sweet clover, grow on? Is it a good crop for sotne land? Where 
is the Mexican clover grown? Where is the Florida beggar weed 
grcnvn, and of what use is it? Describe the rape, and tell what 
it is grown for. Of what use are chufas, or grass nuts? On what 
kind of land do they grow especially well? What is the Jerusalem 
artichoke ? 



CHAPTER XXXI 
OTHER HAY AND PASTURE GRASSES 

The Bermuda grass is one of the best pasture grasses, if 
not the best, for the Gulf and South Atlantic States and 
for parts of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. In the 
higher and colder parts of the Plains, it cannot compete 
with the native buffalo grass. Although a great drought- 
resisting grass, it probably does not equal the buffalo and 
mesquite grasses in this respect. Where Bermuda grass 
thrives, it is the very backbone of the entire pasture sys- 
tem. It will pasture more stock to the acre without being 
injured, stand more drought, and afford more months of 
grazing in tlie year than any other one grass or plant. 

Value for Pasture and Hay. — People of the Mississippi 
Delta in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana have fre- 
quently reported that their Bermuda pastures afford 
grazing for five head of cattle or horses to the acre from 
April to Christmas. Good land makes large crops of Ber- 
muda grass hay, which is easily saved and full}' equal in 
lvalue to timothy hay. The yield is often from two to 
four tons an acre. As Bermuda grass does not mature 
good seed in the United States, there is no danger of its 
spreading like Johnson grass, when used for hay. 

Bermuda grass used to be dreaded as Johnson grass is 
now ; but people have learned to work with it, and to kill 
it when it has served their purposes. Besides the plan 

208 



OTHER HAY AND PASTURE GRASSES 209 

already given, it may be destroyed by heavy crops of peas, 
velvet beans, or sweet potatoes, tliat shade the land well 
all summer. 

On tlie clay, lime, and bottom lands wliite clover should 
always be grown on Bermuda pasture. Tlie clover grows 
when the grass is dormant, and lengthens the season of 
good grazing about two months. This gain of two 
months' grazing in early spring means much to the 
Southern farmer. It means he can have his cattle almost 
fat before lieat, flies, and ticks appear, and that he will be 
saved two months' expensive feeding. The wJiite clover, 
once established, will last forever. This gives a natural 
rotation of crops ; the clover, growing in winter and 
spring, enriches the land for the grass which grows in 
summer and fall. Toward the northern limit of the Ber- 
muda area the blue grass begins to thrive, and may often 
grow on the Bermuda sod. 

On the sandier and poorer lands bur clover will thrive 
better than white clover, and should always have a place 
on Bermuda pasture. 

Carpet Grass. — In the sandier districts, particularly in 
the southern part of the Gulf States and the pine belt of 
the South Atlantic States, carpet grass disputes very suc- 
cessfully the possession of the soil with Bermuda. It oc- 
cupies the little bottoms, hollows, and firuier uplands, 
wherever grazing is done. When the land is cultivated 
or allowed to grow up in weeds, the carpet grass dis- 
appears. As soon as cultivation ceases and stock begins 
to graze and tramp down the tall weeds and brush, it 
comes again from seed that are scattered over the coun- 
p 



•210 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

try. Carpet grass stands the heaviest grazmg and tramp- 
ing, and affords a longer period of grazing than Bermuda. 
Japan Clover, or Lespedeza. — Beginning with East Texas 
and extending all over the rainy sections of the South, 
this little legume flourishes on the roadsides and in almost 
all pastures. On good land it sometimes grows high 
enough to make fine hay. It often grows with carpet 
m-ass and sometimes with Bermuda. It is a summer- 

o 

growing annual that is late in getting large enough for 
grazing in spring, and is killed by the first frost in fall. 
It makes fine summer grazing, and comes up and thrives 
without sowing. 

Johnson Grass. — This grass generally comes without 
being wanted. It is not often used for pasture, except as 
a means of killing it. It does not stand close grazing, 
and is easily killed out in two or three years by this treat- 
ment. However, a few people who want to graze it and 
preserve it, divide the pasture, grazing part at a time. 
In this way it lasts indefinitely and affords fine grazing. 

Johnson Grass Hay. — This grass is generally used for 
hay, yielding each year three or four cuttings of hay that 
is rather better than timothy. The hay is very likely to 
carry some ripe seed, and the grass is often spread in this 
way. For this reason many people will not buy the hay 
or allow it to be brought into the community. This gives 
it a lower price than its feeding value would justify. 

Killing Johnson Grass. — After Johnson grass has 
been closely mowed for hay two or three years, it be- 
comes so weakened that it can be easily killed. It gives 
most trouble when it appears in patches on cultivated 



OTHER HAY AND PASTURE GRASSES 



211 



land. The bunches should be torn up with plows and 
the hoe hands should cut them considerably below the 
surface of the ground. By frequent careful working 
until late in the sum- 
mer, the grass can be 
killed even without 
grazing or mowing. 
Farmers in Missis- 
sippi and Alabama 
are killing it in this 
way every year. If 
any plant can be kept 
cut off under the 
ground often enough 
to prevent any top 
growth, the roots will 
die. 

Another way of 
getting rid of this 
grass is to grow no 
crop on the land and plow it several times in the summer. 
This treatment is expensive, but it puts the land in the 
best possible condition for a fall crop. Again, Johnson 
grass land may be reclaimed by sowing fall oats or wheat 
and plowing soon after harvest in June, and then keeping 
it clean of the grass by frequent plowings, say once ever}^ 
three weeks, till October. Sharp, heavy disk harrows, set 
to run at the greatest angle, will probably cut off the 
grass at each operation after the first plowing. In sum- 
mer Johnson grass roots (rather, underground stems) rot 




Fig. 76. — Johnson Grass 



212 



ELEMENTS OF A(;RICI:LTURE 



rapidly. Unless there is a green growth of leaf to gather 
food and produce more roots, the grass must die. This 
is true of any plant. 

Chemicals. — All chemical treatments for this, or any 
other deep-rooted pest, are entirely too expensive. Jt is 




77. — GuiNKA Gkass, 1)I].oxi, Mississippi 

probable that a thousand dollars' worth of the cheapest 
chemical obtainable would not kill the grass on an acre. 
If it did, it would kill the land for two or three years. 

The people who have had this grass longest in the 
United States have learned to utilize it and to kill it, and 
its presence in those sections does not reduce the value of 
the lands on which it is found. 

Guinea and Para Grass. — Guinea and Para grass, both 
large tropical grasses growing as high as a man's head, 
and densely thick on the ground, are becoming well 



OTHER HAY AND PASTURE GRASSES 213 

known and jippreciated in the Gulf States. Neither of 
these grasses propagates in the same way as Johnson 
grass, and neither is likely to become a pest. The 
(ruinea grass spreads from seed, and the plants sucker 
enormously ; several hundred plants come from one stalk. 
The l^ara grows from large trailing stems in the same 
way that Bermuda does, but much faster. Its stems will 
often grow thirty feet in a season, and make a new plant 
at each joint. Both of tliese grasses remain remarkably 
succulent and tender for grasses of such size. 

They are very usefid for hay and for soilinc/, and cut- 
ting and feeding green to stock. They are also fine for 
grazing. The Guinea grass is the main grazing grass of 
Cuba, and the Para (^f Soutli America. Both of these 
plants will become of great value in the southern part 
of the cotton belt. 

Crab Grass. — Crab grass is found everywhere on culti- 
vated land in the sandy, loamy, and clay sections of the 
South, east of the semiarid belt. It does not flourish on 
lime lands or on buckslujt bottoms. It is often cut for 
hay, particularly wlien it grows with peavines. It gets 
into cultivated lands the second year after they are cleared. 
AVhen cultivated land is converted into pasture, cral) grass 
makes good grazing for one year, Avhen it gives way to 
otlier growths. 

Expense of Cultivating. — Crab grass adds more to the 
expense of cultivating llie crop than any other pest, 
except coco (nut grass) and Johnson grass. It seems 
to exhaust the land and liurt the crop much worse than 
Bermuda, coco, or ev^en Johnson grass. Crab grass will 



214 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

always kill alfalfa, but on suitable land the latter grows 
well with Johnson grass. Crops often grow well in the 
midst of coco and Bermuda, but never with crab grass. 
Any considerable growth of it will turn any crop yellow 
and make it weak and sickly. 

Late, clean cultivation of land in cotton, so as to prevent 
crab grass from making seed, will, in a measure, eradicate 
it and make cultivation easy the next year. But it soon 
appears on the land again. 

Coco, or Nut Grass.— We have already told how crops 
are made in spite of this pest. It is never saved for hay, 
and amounts to little for pasture. It is widespread in 
parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and other states, and is the 
hardest of all pests to kill. As hogs root after the nuts 
on the deep roots, small patches may be killed by pasturing 
it lieavily with hogs. Dense shade with pea vines, velvet 
beans, etc., weaken it. 

Given extra working, as good cotton is grown Avhere 
this grass grows as where the land is clear of it. 

QUESTIONS 

Describe Bermuda grass. Will it cany much stock on an acre? 
Is it ever used for hay? Was it ever considered a pest on the farm? 
Can it be easily killed? What clover should be grown on Bermuda 
pasture, on clay, and loamy land? What clover would be better on 
sandy land? Where does carpet grass thrive? Where does Japan 
clover grow ? What are its uses ? How^ does Johnson grass generally 
get into the farms? Is it a good hay grass and is the quality of the 
hay good? What objection do people have to the hay? How can 
.Johnson grass be killed? Tell something of Guinea grass and Para 
grass. Are they likely to become valuable in the United States? 
Would you consider crab grass a pest? AVhat is nut grass? Is it 
easily killed ? 



CHAPTER XXXII 

ORCHARD CROPS 

Intensive and Extensive Farming. — Orchards and truck 
farms require more capital, more skill, higher fertilizing, 




^'^ 



ip J 'S iii ii 



Fig. 78. — Intensive Farming 

(Chinese in Hawaii grow bananas and taro on ridges, ducks and fisli in 
canals between ridges.) 

and more intensive culture than other lines of agriculture. 
Sometimes as much as ti>1000 is spent in producing a crop 
on a single acre, and maybe -f 2000 is expected in returns 

215 



!lt) 



ELEMENTS OF A(;KICULTUUE 



on the crop. One sucli crop is celery. Cabbage and 
onions may require an expenditnre of $75 to 1 100 an 
acre, and may bring returns of 1 150 to $300 an acre. 
Among the crops grown on the extensive system may 
be mentioned wheat, whose average money returns to 
the acre in the United States are about $10, but the aver- 
age expenditures in making and marketing may be only 
$8 or $9. The same business ability and effort neces- 




'■ ^x-M 




Fli,. 7'.!. — iKlvlvxAilNG AN OllC HARD 



sary to handle 500 acres of wheat would probably not be 
sufficient for two. acres of celery or 10 acres of cabbage or 
onions. An extreme case of extensive farming is pastur- 
inir beef cattle on a rang^e where one man can look after 
thousands of heads of cattle on tens of tliousands of 
acres, each acre bringing small returns — sometimes not 
more than 10 cents. 

Early Truck and Fruit. — Growing fruits and early vege- 
tables in the South for sliipment to Nortliern markets has 
grown into a very large business. Solid train loads of 



OKCIIAKI) CROPS 



217 



early truck crops are often made up at a single shipping 
point. The cars are iced and the train is run on a special 
scliedule to get the perishable freight to the market in good 
condition. When there is a large amount of such produce 
to move, the railroads handle it better and get it to the 
market more quickly than they do small amounts. At 




Fig. 80. — Well-trimmed Texas Peach Tree 

the same time buyers are attracted to the places of large 
production, and better prices are offered. As truck 
farmers have become more and more experienced in 
making, packing, and shipping produce, fewer k)sses 
occur, and the business is becoming more certain of fair 
profits. 

Peaches. — Among the tree fruits grown on a com- 
mercial scale in the South, the peach stands at the head 
of the list. Peaches are not a certain crop ; they fail 



218 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 




Fig. 81. — San Jose 
Scale on Peach Trees 



to produce fruit perhaps half of the seasons because the 
fruit buds are killed by cold. The orchards are not 
expensive to bring into bearing, however, and w^hen 
a good crop is made, it is generally very profitable. 
Peaches do not require rich lands. 
, . The largest and best orchards in the 
South are found on well-drained sandy 
loams that require commercial fertili- 
'^ zer to produce good cotton crops. 
The land intended for peaches should 
be well plowed and harrowed. Good 
budded trees should be planted, pref- 
erably in checks eighteen by eighteen 
feet or even wider apart. The young 
plant should be trimmed for setting. 
Expenses of Orchard. — Good one-year-old budded trees 
can often be bought in large numbers for five cents each. 
So a sufficient number of trees for an acre — 108 — would 
only cost 'f 5.40; and preparing the land, fertilizing, and 
setting the trees should not cost over $ 10 more. 

Growing Crops in Orchard. — For the first two or three 
years the young orchard may grow cotton or Irish potatoes 
between the rows of trees. Any crop that is well fer- 
tilized and cultivated will not hurt the trees. The culti- 
vation of the crop also cultivates the trees. Heavy crops 
of peas grown in the orchard may draw too heavily on 
the moisture supply in late summer. Peas also breed 
certain root diseases that in some cases are very destruc- 
tive to the peach. The bur clover, or crimson clover, 
makes a fine winter cover-crop for the orchard. These 



ORCHARD CROPS 



219 



crops gather nitrogen and prevent leaching in the winter, 
and die in the spring before the moisture supply begins to 
run low. 

Cultivation in Dry Sections. — Good clean cultivation at 
all seasons is best for orchards in dry sections of country. 




Fig. 82. — Cocoanut Plantation, as skkn in I^lokida, 
Hawaii, and the Philippines 



PoKTO Kl(C) 



It is impossible to grow any two crops together without 
their dividing moisture with each other. 

Pruning. — Trees should be so pruned as to force the 
branches to grow out within from twelve to twenty inches 
of the ground, and these branches should be pruned each 
year so as to prevent the tree from growing too tall 
and to give it a symmetrical shape. Observation and ex- 
perience will be the best guides in learning how to prune 
trees. 



!>20 



ELEMENTS OE AGRICULTURE 



Thinning Fruit. — Tliiiuiing the fruit on the tree is very 
important. If a hirge number of peaches remains on a 
tree, they will be small and inferior. If some are cut off 
when small, leaving one every six or eight inches on the 
limbs, perhaps as many total pounds or bushels of fruit 
will be made, and the quality will be much better. Pro- 




Ax Apple Branch 



ducing seed is the most exhausting part of any plant's 
work. If a great many small peaches are matured, the 
strain on the vital energies of the tree will be greater than 
if fewer large peaches are allowed to come to maturity. 

Apples. — Apples are not commercially important in the 
Gulf and South Atlantic States, except in the highlands 
of parts of Georgia and the Carolinas, and perhaps on a 



ORCHARD CROPS 



521 



little elevated land in Alabama. Tlie elevated sections of 
Northern Arkansas grow immense quantities of fine a[)ples. 
Texas people grow a few fine winter-keeping apples on 
the lands having an elevation of 2000 feet and above 
in the western part of the state. The apples grown on 
the lowlands of the South mature in summer, when the 
weather is too warm for them to keep. In the higher, 
more northerly, and cooler sections apples ripen in the 




Fig. 84. — Figs at the Ti.xan Lxi-i^.uimkm Siaiiois 

fall, when the weather is cool enough for them to keep 
over winter. Where apples do well, they are more cer- 
tain to yield well than peaches, and the trees live longer. 
Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ai-kansas, Oklalioma, Mis- 
souri, and Kansas all have great possibilities in the way 
of apple growing. 

Figs. — In the United States the fig is one of the best and 
surest fruits that are grown, for latitudes south of thirty- 
one and one-half and for a considerable distance north 



«>.)9 



ELEMENTS OF AGKICULTL'RE 



of this on the Atlantic coast. They do fairly well as far 
north as 33 degrees. The fig never fails to produce fruit 
in abundance if it has any wood growth at all. Some- 
times in higher latitudes the trees are killed to the ground 
by a severe frost, but they sprout up from the roots in 
the spring and make a small crop on the new wood. 



''A 






^^d^^tit' 



IRwi^^i 



~'~'''^m mmm >'- i- mm 



Fig. <85. — Smyrna Fig Trees, California 

The next year they yield abundantly. Along the Gulf 
Coast, from West Texas to Florida, they are seldom 
killed by the cold, and the crops are large and very 
profitable. Some trees along the coast are known to 
be eighty years old. No fruit tree is easier to start, the 
iig being propagated either by layering or simple cuttings. 
See Figure 23 for proper depth to plant fig cuttings. 



ORCHAKD CROPS 223 

The fig needs rich soil, or soil made rich by fertilizing. 
Often in sections where figs are liable to be killed by a 
hard freeze, some protection like a house, a fence, or other 
trees will save their lives. To protect oranges in South 
Texas or Louisiana, dirt is often piled up around the 
trunks of the trees. If the cold kills the wood above the 
bank of dirt, the buds protected sprout out vigorously 
and make a profitable tree again. Figs might be treated 
in the same way, and thus more live wood be saved. 

About three hundred fig trees are planted to the acre. 
These commence bearing by the second year, and by the 
third or fourth year often yield a dollar's worth of fruit 
to a tree. The fruit is so desirable for preserves that it 
brings a very high price as compared with most fruits. 
In South Texas contracts are being made by preserving 
establishments to take the output of orchards being planted, 
at three to five cents a pound for the fresh figs. 

Pecans. — All fine varieties of pecans now propagated 
by grafting came originally from sports found in the for- 
ests, and many more are surely yet to be discovered in 
the same way. 

The best statistics available place the yield of pecans in 
Texas at 700 carloads, worth about $ 1,500,000. 

The importance of planting only budded trees of good 
kinds has been referred to. It is recommended that 
from 25 to 50 trees be planted to the acre. The land 
should be worked in some crop requiring clean cultivation, 
like cotton. Pecans come into profitable bearing in from 
7 to 10 years, and the crops increase as the trees grow 
older. An orchard of a fine variety of pecan is very 



224 



ELEMENTS OF AG III CULTURE 



profitable, and it will probably last 100 years or 

more. 

Citrus Fruits. — It is freely niaiiitaiiied that Southwest 

Texas has soil and climate suitable for growing oranges, 

lemons, and grape-fruit in quantities to rival the produc- 
tions of Califor- 
nia and Florida. 
Fine large trees, 
loaded with 
magnificent 
fruit, are to be 
found at various 
places in South 
Texas and Lou- 
isiana. Many of 
these trees are so 
old as to prove 
that the climate 
is not too cold 
for them. Many 
large orchards 
are being set in 
oranges and 

(Ten pounds on one short limb.) 

other citrus 
fruits, and there is little doubt but that this will become 
one of the big industries of the Southwest as it is now 
in the Southeast in Florida. 

Satsuma Oranges. — The variety of oranges especially 
planted in our coast country is the Satsuma, a heavy 
bearer of medium-sized, delicious fruit without seed. It 




Fl.i, Sd. — (il; Al'K FlM IT (.i;<)\V\ AT i;i'.K\lLLK 

Texas, Branch Experiment Station 



ORCHARD CROPS 



225 



is d^varfed by being budded upon a small, hardy tree, or 
shrub of the orange family, called Citrus trifoUata. This 
trifoliata can withstand the winter as far north as New 
York ; but its fruit is worthless, and the plant, when not 
used as orange stock, makes an excellent hedge plant. 




Fig. 87 



Texas Okaxgk Tree 



Kemember this book can discuss but a few important 
fruits. Procure a good book on horticulture suited to 
your section, and get your station bulletins and Depart- 
ment publications. 



QUESTIONS 

Explain the main difference between. extensive and intensive farm- 
ing. Give an example of very intensive cnltnre. Of extensive cul- 
ture. Which is more intensive, cotton or corn? Why? Which is 
more intensive, sweet potatoes or sugar cane ? What of the growth 

Q 



226 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

of fruit and truck raising in tlie South? What advantage does the 
truck farmer who lives in a community of truck farmers have over 
one being in the business alone? What fruit is more largely grown 
than any other in the South? How would you start a peach orchard? 
How expensive is it to start an acre of peaches? How often do 
j^eaches make good crops? Are they profitable? What can be done 
with an orchard when trees are young? Why are peas objected to 
for growing in orchards? Why would bur clover or vetch be better? 
Why should you not grow anything in an orchard in a semiarid 
country? How should trees be pruned? What reason is there for 
thinning fruit on the trees? Why are apples not commercially im- 
portant in the Gulf States? What are the conditions necessary to 
grow winter-keeping apples ? What Southern States possess these ad- 
vantages? Why is apple-growing a good business where conditions 
are favorable? Tell what you know of the fig. How profitable may 
fig-raising become? What advantages have figs over all other or- 
chard ci'ops ? What suggestion is made to save figs from winter-kill- 
ing to some extent ? 

Where in the United States are most of the oranges, lemons, and 
citrus fruits grown ? Where are the citrus fruits beginning to be 
planted? Tell about the Satsuma orange and how it is propagated. 
What part of the Southwest is destined to become a great citrus- 
growing country? Tell something of pecan growing. 

Suggestion. — Practice budding pecans, oranges, etc. Cut off 
hickory limbs and tops in winter. Send for careful directions for 
budding pecans in these next summer. It would be a great ac- 
complishment if you could make nearly worthless hickories bear 
fine paper-shell pecans. 

Plant out a good number of fig cuttings. Start a small orchard, 
preferably on the south side of buildings, fences, or other trees. 
]\Ianure trees highly, protect them from cold if necessary by tempo- 
i-ary wind-breaks, and you will soon see what a profitable crop it is. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

TRUCK CROPS 

Irish Potatoes. — li'i.sh potatoes are largely grown for 
Northern markets. They need a good rich, warm soil, as 
well as rapid working and artificial water supply where it 




V„' 



Fig. 88. — Harvesting Irish Potatoes 

is feasible to provide it. On a good sandy loam soil, 
potatoes should make their largest yields of good smooth 
tuljers. Seed sliould be cut in rather large pieces, as has 

227 



228 ELEMENTS OE AGRICULTURE 

already been explained, so as to plant about twelve l)usliels 
of seed to an acre. 

Fertilizers. — About 800 pounds of fertilizer, containing 
200 pounds cotton-seed meal, 500 acid phosphate, and 100 
pounds nitrate of soda will generally assure a good crop. 
This fertilizer should be put out and the land to be 
planted bedded on it, or it should be sprinkled in the fur- 
row with the seed potatoes. Very few soils are dry and 
warm enough in the humid part of the South to justify 
planting on a level. 

Enemies. — The Colorado potato beetle is sure to attack 
the crop. Weak solutions of Paris green will easily kill 
this pest. When blight attacks the leaves, spraying with 
Bordeaux mixture is desirable. To prevent scab!)}' po- 
tatoes from being produced, the seed is often soaked in 
a solution of formalin, one part of formalin to 300 to 400 
of water, to kill any scab spores, or seeds of fungi, that 
may be on the seed. 

Yield and Profit. — A fairly good yield of potatoes is 
100 to 150 bushels to the acre. When they bring 75 cents 
to ^1 a bushel at the shipping station, good profits are 
usually made. Sometimes the markets are too low to ship 
at a profit. In that case, if the potatoes could be put in 
cold storage and kept a month or more, a good demand 
could be had at home. I>y midsummer all Southern pota- 
toes are out of the market, and Northern potatoes are 
being shipped South. 

Second Crop. — Good crops of sweet potatoes, corn, cot- 
ton, etc., can be grown on the Irish potato land after the 
potatoes are dug, say in June. In growing a fall crop of 



THICK CROPS 229 

potatoes, saving moisture enough and preserving the seed 
are the greatest difficulties. The small potatoes of the 
first crop are spread out in a good shade and partially 
covered with straw or leaves. They are allowed to lie till 
sprouts appear, and are generally planted whole. Cutting 
will make them come up quicker, but they are liable to rot 
when cut. The fall-grown crop makes good seed the fol- 
lowing spring. 

Hotbeds. — A hotbed is made by mixing stable manure, 
cotton seed, etc., and surrounding this with a suitable 




Fig. 8i). — Small Hotbed 

frame and covering with glass as shown in Figure 89. 
The rotting manure produces heat, and the sun's rays 
enter through the glass, which at the same time pre- 
vents the escape of heat from the bed. Some hotbeds 
have flues underneath and are heated by fires. By 
either plan, plenty of w^armth can be controlled to grow 
any plant. 

Tomatoes. — Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc., are 
started in January in the Gulf States. The tomato plants 
are taken out of the hotbed about February and trans- 



230 



ELKMKXTS OF A(;ilK:L'LTLllI-: 



planted into a cold-frame. A cold-frame lias no heatiiiL;' 
manure, and it is covered with clotii. The object is to 
harden the plant as much as possible and at the same 
time protect it and keep it growing. When all danger 
of frost is over, the plants are taken from tlie cold-frame 




Fig. 90. — Gathering Tomatoks 



and transplanted to a field in checks about three by four 
feet. The plants are kept tied up to stakes, as shown in 
Figure 90. All the suckers are kept pinched off the 
plants, and when they have grown about three feet high, 
and have set a good crop of fruit, they are topped. Tlie 
object is to force them to produce a good crop of fruit 
early. If one wishes tomatoes for liome use or for can- 



TRUCK CKurs 



231 



niiig, it would be better to let the plants grow longer 
and branch out and continue to bear.- 

Enemies. — The cotton boll worm is hard on the tomato, 
but generally a good early crop can be gathered before 
the worm gets very abundant. Tomato blight is a much- 
dreaded disease. The crop should be planted on a fresh 
piece of ground each year. 

Yield. — Tomatoes often produce 500 bushels to the 
acre, and the crop is usually profitable. It does not re- 




&^^MT£M^^^Z\>^- 




Fig. 91. — Cabbage Field 



quire such high fertilizing as cabbage and potatoes. 
Three or four hundred pounds of fertilizer to the acre is 
ample on ordinary sandy loam soil. 

The largest tomato-growing places in the South are 
Jacksonville, Texas, and Crystal Springs, Mississippi. 

Cabbage. — - Early cabbage are sometimes started like 
tomatoes in hotbeds and cold-frames. They are set out 
in the field earlier tlian tomatoes, being set in three-foot 
rows, at the rate of 8000 plants to the acre. Farther 



282 ELE.MEXTS OF AGKICLLTLUE 

south they are often planted in open ground in September 
or October and trans[)lanted from November to February 
in the fields where they are to grow. Cabbages need rich 
land or plenty of fertilizer or both combined. A ton of 
fertilizer is often used to the acre. They need good culti- 
vation. In the different sections of the Gulf States, 
cutting and shipping take place from Marcli until June. 
A fairly good crop is 100 crates, weighing about 120 
pounds each, but often twice this amount is ])roduced. 
One dollar a hundred pounds at shipping station is a 
profitable price. The crop often bi'ings much more. 
When prices are too low" for profit, cabbage can be kept 
in cold storage as recommended for Irish potatoes. 

Every ice factory should have a cold room to store crops 
like this. A large and profitable business could easily be 
built up in most localities in storing perishable vegetables 
of this kind. 

Onions. — Onion growing is a large and luci-ative busi- 
ness, especially in Southwest Texas. Yields are fre- 
(|uently as high as 500 to 800 bushels to the acre on rich, 
well-fertilized and irrigated lands. Probably 300 bushels 
is nearer the average. The onion seed are planted on 
l)eds in September and October in little rows about three 
inches apart. From December to February they are trans- 
planted to the fields. The plants are placed in rows about 
15 to 18 inches apart, and set as close as four inches in 
the rows. It has been estimated to cost #30 an acre to 
set onions in this way. 

The crop is generally ready to harvest in May, and 
is shipped in sacks to tlie Northern markets. Tiie onion 



TRUCK CROPS 23a 

crop seldom nets tlie grower less than To cents a bushel 
and frequently over a dolUir. 

There are many other prohtable market crops, but tliey 
cannot be discussed in this book without making it too 
h)ng. Peas, beans, cauliflower, lettuce, radisli, peppers, 
asparagus, celery, melons, and numerous other crops are 
grown for the Northern market pr()fital)ly. Throughout 
the Plains country particularl}^, as fine cantaloupes and 
watermelons as ever grew can be raised in greatest abun- 
dance. Melons have been considered for sugar production 
on the Phiins, but the sugar beet also thrives tliere. Your 
experiment station will refer you to good books and bulle- 
tins that will give you tlie details of the culture and 
handling of all of them. 

QIESTIONS 

AVhat sort of land is best for raising Irish potatoes? Do they 
uped much fertilizer? What fertilizer mixture is suggested? Why 
are potatoes not often planted on a level in the Soutli ? AA^hat 
insect and what disease attack potatoes? What are the remedies for 
tliese troubles? I low can scabby potatoes be prevented ? Tell what 
the yield and value of potatoes should be. What suggestion is made 
when the Northern markets are low ? AATiat crops can be made on 
tlie Irish potato land after the potatoes are gathered? How are fall 
Irish potatoes grown ? How are tomatoes planted ? Describe a hot- 
bed. AVhat is a cold-frame? Howware tomatoes worked, staked, and 
trimmed? Do they need heavy fertilizing? AVhat insect troubles the 
tomato? AVhat fungous disease does the tomato suffer from ? AVhat 
is a fair yield of tomatoes? AATiere are the largest shipping points 
in the Southern States for tomatoes? How are cabbages started in 
different sections? When are they cut and shipped? Do they need 
heavy fertilizing? What is a good yield of cabbage and what is a 
profitable price? What can be done with cabbage if Northern markets 
get low? Tell something of onion growing. AA'hat is a good yield? 
AVhat [)rices are received? Do they need high fertilizing? 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS 

Animals made of Plants. — You leiiiiKMl in the first part 
of this book tliat animals must \k' composed of the same 
chemical elements as plants, because tliey are built up by 
eating plants. If all tlie blood, lean meat, brain, tendons, 
membranes, skin, hair, hoofs, and horns of animals could 
be separated from the rest of the body and dried, tliey 
would contain sixteen per cent of nitrogen. The cheese, 
or curd of milk, when dry, also contains sixteen per cent 
of nitrogen. No animal can live unless the substances 
in its food furnish nitrogen. Fortunately, most natural 
foods contain this element in small or large amounts. 
The substances in food that contain nitrogen we call 
proteifi, and, like the nitrogenous parts of the animal 
body, protein contains sixteen per cent of nitrogen. 

Protein Feeds. — The Avhite of an tdgg is pure protein. 
Peas, beans, peavine hay, alfalfa liay, etc., are rich in pro- 
tein, because, as you remember, these plants feed on 
the nitrogen of tlie air, and they make this nitrogen into 
the compound called protein. Cotton seed and cotton- 
seed meal are A^ery rich in protein. No animal can give 
a good supply of milk without plenty of protein in its 
food. 

Fat-making Feeds. — Animals must also have material 
to make fat in their l)0(lies, and to make the butter fat of 

234 



THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS 23;") 

milk. Fat, or oil, in food, such as cotton-seed oil, can do 
this, because all fats are made of three things — carbon, 
hydrogen, and oxygen — whether they are vegetable fats 
or animal fats. Protein can build fat, because it con- 
tains carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen along with its nitro- 
gen, but it is too expensive to feed so mucli of it. The 
sugar, starch, gums, and woody parts of plants are also 
made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and can build fat 
in the body. Corn is about two-thirds starch, and you 
know how it puts fat on hogs. 

Heat and Force-making Feeds. — lint most of the food 
eaten by animals is used to Ivcep tlicir bodies warm and to 
produce force and work. It is burned up to keep the 
machine hot and to keep it running. Sugar, starch, 
gums, fiber, or woody matter in the foods are used for 
this purpose. 'Hiese substances taken together are called 
carho -hydrates. Fats in food can also be burned to keep 
up heat and produce energy or work. You have heard of 
tlie Esquimaux drinking fish oil to keep warm. Protein 
can also be burned to make heat and force, but it is usu- 
ally too expensive to be fed for this purpose. So we 
see protein can do its own special work, and can also take 
the place of fats aiul carbo-hydrates if necessary. 

Ash and Water. — The ash of plants contains the mate- 
rials for making bones. But as almost all feeds contain 
plenty of ash, we need not further consider it. All feeds 
also contain some water, but this is not necessary, since 
animals can get plenty of water from the creek. So can 
animals get plenty of water in feeds sometimes. In 
the Hawaiian Islands thousands of cattle never drink anv 



23G ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

water. They graze on high mountain hind where tliere is 
much rain, but the rain sinks so fast in the volcanic soil 
that none accumulates on the surface. The grass is quite 
green and affords plenty of water. 

Digestibility. — Of course, feed stuff, in order to nourish 
animals, must be digested. Only from one-half to two- 
thirds of hay is generally digested, and from three-fourths 
to seven-eighths of grains and meals. An animal of a 
given size needs a certain amount of digestible protein^ 
cdiho-hydrates^ and fats to accomplish a particular result. 
These are called nutrients. 

Amounts of Digestible Nutrients Needed. — A milk cow, 
a fattening steer, or a hard-worked horse may be said to 
need each day about two pounds of digestible protein, 
about twelve or thirteen pounds of digestible carbo- 
hydrates, and about a half pound of digestible fats. More 
protein, say up to three pounds a day, certainly would do 
no harm, if not too expensive. Of course, large animals 
or tliose giving large quantities of milk, need more, while 
small animals, or those giving less milk, require less. 
Animals not expected to work, gain in weight, or give 
milk can get along on one-fourth this amount of protein, 
and much less of the other nutrients. 

Proportions of Coarse Feed. — Cattle will generall}^ 
utilize food most economically, if given about two-thirds, 
by dry weight, of coarse, bulky foods, such as hay and 
fodder, and one-third concentrated feed, or eoneenf rates, 
such as cotton seed, corn meal, cotton-seed meal, bran, etc. 
Cattle on full feed will need about twenty-five to thirty 
pounds of dry feed a day. Horses, when heavily worked. 



THE FEEDIN(; OF ANIMALS 



should have at least half tlieir food by dry weight of con- 
centrates, and the other half of roughage^ or roughness, 
and should have about twenty to twenty-five pounds of 
dry feed a day. All animals will eat larger proportions 
of concentrated feed, if allowed to have it. Sheep, in 
fattening, seem to do best on about half concentrated 




Fig. 02. — Southwest Texas Steers being lAiiKMu. i-x Cactus 
AND Cotton-seed Meal 

and the other half rough feed. Hogs, when fattening 
rapidly, eat still more concentrated feed than sheep and 
horses. Young animals need more protein than older 
ones, because they must build u}) lean meat and tissue. 
They also eat more in proportion to live weight than 
older animals. 

Calculating Nutrients. — Cliemists analyze all the food 
stuffs and lind out how much protein, carbo-hydrates, and 



288 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTIRE 

fats each contains. Actual trials liav^e been made of all 
of them to see liow digestible they are when eaten by 
different animals. If a certain feed, for instance, has 14 
per cent of protein, and 75 per cent of this is digestible, 
then we have .75 of .14, equals .105 (14 per cent multi- 
plied by 75 per cent, decimally, gives 10.5 per cent of 
digestible protein in the feed). If you want to feed your 
milk cow 5 pounds of this feed a day, then you will give 
her 5 times .105, or .525, pound of digestible protein. This 
will be about ^ of what protein she needs, but if she has 
a good pasture to run in, she may there get the rest of 
what she needs. But if the pasture is not good, suppose 
you give her 4 pounds of cotton-seed meal. It will con- 
tain about 40 per cent protein, and about 85 per cent of 
this will be digestible. Eighty-five per cent of 40 per 
cent will be 34 per cent. Then 4 pounds times 34 per 
cent (.34 pound) will make 1.36 pounds. This added 
to what the other feed contained would be nearly 2 
pounds. The pasture would have to be very poor, if this 
much feed did not give the cow more than enough digest- 
ible protein. Poor pastures, dry stalk fields, rough 
woods, ranges, etc., may easily supply the carbo-hydrates 
necessary. 

Nitrogen-free Extract and Crude Fiber. — In analyzing 
feeds for carbo-hydrates, the chemist divides these into 
two groups, because one group is usually more digestible 
than the other. The sugar, starch, gums, etc., he puts 
into one group, which he calls nitrogen free extract. The 
fibrous, woody part of the feed he puts into anotlier group, 
which he calls crude fiber. A feed like hay or cotton- 



THE FEEDIXC; OF ANIMALS 289 

seed hulls or straw contains mucli crude fiber and is 
always bulky, and is not very digestible. A feed con- 
taining much starch, like corn and sweet potatoes, or 
sugar, like sugar beets, is very digestible, and hence more 
valuable in proportion to dry weight than hay, hulls, and 
straw. Nearly all feeds that have not gone through some 
manufacturing process contain nitrogen-free extract and 
crude fiber, as well as protein, fat, and ash. 

Calculations. — If a grass hay contains 40 per cent 
nitrogen-free extract, and 65 per cent of this is digestible, 
then the hay contains 26 per cent digestible nitrogen-free 
extract. If the same batch of hay contains 25 per cent 
crude fiber, and 40 per cent of this is digestible, then it 
will contain 10 per cent digestible crude fiber. After 
crude fiber and nitrogen-free extract are both digested, 
they are counted as having equal value. Therefore, we 
add the two digestible amounts together, 2(3 per cent 
nitrogen-free extract and 10 per cent crude fiber, and 
call them carbo-hydrates, and we have 36 per cent digestible 
carbo-hydrates in this hay. If you fed a cow 20 pounds 
of such hay a day, you would give her 20 times .36 pound 
of digestible carbo-hydrates, or 7.20 pounds in this feed 
alone. If you have never had money enough to take any 
interest in percentage and decimals, you have now found 
tliat knowledge of this kind is needed in order to calcu- 
late rations for farm animals. 

If certain seed has 19 per cent of fat (oil), and 75 per 
cent of this oil is digestible, then this seed contains 14.25 
per cent digestible fats. If you feed 5 pounds a day to a 
cow, you give lier in tlie seed alone about .71 of a pound 



240 



ELEMENTS OF AGHICrLTURE 



of digestible fat. Jf you have reviewed your deciuials 
and percentage, you now have all the mathematics you 
need to calculate suitable rations for live stock from the 
following tables, which contain the digestible nutrients 
in 100 [)()unds of each of our different common feed stuffs. 
In the table the calculations for digestible nutrients are 
made for us. Uy means of the last column in the table 
you can always calculate the fertilizing value of the food 
fed animals, and can closely estimate the value of manure 
made. Wheat bran, cotton-seed meal, and other rich 
feeds produce enough manure to go far toward paying for 
the feeds. 

TABLE Xo. 1 

!)i;y Matiki:, Digkstiule XiiniKx i s. and Fehtilizixu 
A'alik IX 100 POUNDS OF Fi:ki> .Stufp^s 



Namk of Feed 


Dry 
Matter 


Protein 


Cauho- 

IIVDRATES 


Fat 


Fertilizixc; 

Value ix 

100 Lbs. of 

Feed 


Grep:n Forage — 










Cents 


Pasture grass . . 


20.0 


2..10 


10.20 


0.50 


10 


Corn fodder . . 


•20.7 


LIO 


L2.08 


0.37 


8} 


Bermuda grass . 


33.0 


2.(50 


1L80 


0.30 


10 


Johnson grass 


34.0 


2.40 


16..50 


0.50 


10 


Japan clover . . 


30.0 


2.70 


14.40 


0.60 


13 


Crab grass . . . 


33.0 


1.90 


U.OO 


0.60 


9 


Soigluini . . . 


20.6 


0.60 


12.20 


0.40 


.)\ 


Alfalfa .... 


28.2 


3.90 


12.70 


1.00 


nr 


Covvpea .... 


20.7 


LSO 


S.70 


0.20 


13 


Soy l)eau . . . 


24.9 


3.20 


22.00 


1.00 


16 


Oat fodder . . . 


.37.8 


2.69 


22.66 


1.04 


13 


Rye fodder . . 


23.4 


2.05 


14.11 


0.44 


10 


Barley fodder . . 


2L0 


LOO 


10.20 


0.40 


12 



THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



241 



Dry Matter, Digestible Nutrients, and Fertilizing 
Value in 100 Pounds of Feed Stuffs — Continued 



Name of Feed 


Dry 
Matter 


Protein 


Carko- 
iiydrates 


Fat 


FEKTILIZIN(i 

. Value in 
100 Lbs. of 
Feed 


CtReen Forage — 












{Cont.) 










Cents 


Wheat fodder . 


36.0 


2.80 


18.00 


0.90 


11 


Orchard grass 


27.0 


1.91 


15.91 


0.58 


11 


Red-top grass . . 


84.7 


2.06 


21.24 


0.58 


11 


Kentucky bhie 












grass . . . 


34.0 


3.01 


19.83 


0.83 




Teosinte . . . 


25.0 


2.40 


13.50 


0.20 


11 


Eed clover . . . 


29.2 


3.07 


14.82 


0.69 


14 


Bur clover . . . 


25.0 


2.60 


17.00 


0.50 


12 


Crimson clover . 


19.1 


2.40 


9.10 


0.50 


11 


Silage from — 












Sorghum . . . 


20.9 


0.60 


11.90 


0.20 




Corn 


20.9 


0.56 


11.70 


0.(35 


9 


Hay from — 












Bermuda grass . 


8(3.0 


6.90 


39.00 


0.80 


30 


Johnson grass 


85.7 


6.00 


41.40 


1.20 


30 


Alfalfa .... 


91.6 


10.58 


37.33 


1.38 


66 


Cowpea .... 


89.3 


10.80 


38.60 


1.10 


60 


Hahy vetch . . 


83.3 


14.60 


30.60 


2.30 


70 


Red clover . . . 


90.3 


6.58 


35.35 


1.66 


58 


Peanut .... 


92.4 


6.70 


42.10 


3.40 


60 


Bur clover . . . 


83.3 


8.80 


36.50 


0.50 


48 


Crimson clover . 


91.4 


10.49 


38.13 


1.29 


60 


Crab grass . . . 


86.0 


4.30 


36.40 


1.50 


25 


Red-top grass . . 


91.1 


4.82 


46.83 


0.95 


30 


Hungarian grass 


92.3 


4.50 


51.67 


1.34 


33 



242 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



Dry Matter, Digestible Nutrients, and Fertilizing 
Value in 100 Pounds of Feed Stuffs — Continued 



Name oy Feed 


Dhy 
Matter 


Protein 


Carbo- 
hydrates 


Fat 


Fertilizing 

Value in 

100 Lbs. of 

Feed 


rL\Y FROM (Cont.) 










Cents 


Orchard grass . . 


90.1 


4.78 


41.99 


1.40 


30 


Timothy grass . . 


86.8 


2.89 


43.72 


1.43 


25 


Kentucky blue grass 


78.8 


4.76 


37.33 


1.95 


26 


Japan clover . . . 


86.0 


7.80 


41.40 


1.80 


50 


Shredded corn stover 


80.0 


2.30 


43.20 


0.90 


20 


Corn blades (fodder) 
Corn shucks . . . 


80.0 
80.0 


4.00 
1.30 


40.80 
49.90 


o.m 

0.30 


35 
20 


Cotton-seed hulls . 


88.9 


0.30 


33.10 


1.70 


20 


AVheat straw . . . 


90.4 


0.40 


36.30 


0.40 


14 


Oat sti-aw .... 


90.8 


1.20 


38.60 


0.80 


21 


Rye straw .... 


92.9 


0.60 


40.60 


0.40 


16 


Barley straw . . . 


85.8 


0.70 


41.20 


0.60 


29 


Roots and Tubers — 












Sweet Potato . . . 


28.9 


1.00 


22.50 






Irish Potato . . . 


21.7 


0.90 


16.30 


0.10 


— 


Beets 


13.0 


1.21 


8.84 






Turnips 


9.5 


0.81 


0.46 


0.11 





Rutabagas .... 


11.4 


0.88 


7.74 


0.11 




Artichoke (elerusa- 












lem) 


20.0 


2.00 


16.80 


0.20 




Grains and Other 












Seeds — 












Cotton seed . . . 


89.7 


12.5 


30.0 


17.3 


75 


Cotton-seed meal . 


91.8 


37.2 


16.9 


12.2 


150 


Cotton-seed hulls . 


88.9 


0.5 


33.1 


1.71 


25 


Corn, field .... 


89.1 


7.9 


86.7 


4.3 


33 


Corn and cob meal . 


84.9 


4.4 


60.0 


2.9 





THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



243 



Dry Matter, DniESTinLE Nutrients, and Fertilizing 
Value in 100 PorxDs of Feed Stuffs — Continued 



Namk of Feki* 


Dky 

iMattkh 


PUOTEIN 


Carho- 

IIYDKATES 


Fat 


Fertilizing 

Value in 

100 Lbs. of 

Feeu 


(i RAINS AND Other 












Seeds (Cont.) — 










Cents 


Wheat 


89.5 


10.2 


69.2 


1.7 


38 


Wheat bran . . . 


88.1 


12.2 


39.2 


2.7 


71 


AVheafc shorts . . . 


88.2 


12.2 


50.0 


3.8 




Wheat middlings . 


87.9 


12.8 


53.0 


3.4 


65 


Fvice 


87.6 


4.8 


72.2 


0.3 


19 


Rice bran .... 


90.3 


5.3 


4.5.1 


7.3 


56 


Rice polish . . . 


90.0 


9.0 


55.4 


6.5 


45 


Oats 


89.0 


9.2 


47.3 


4.2 


41 


Rye 


88.4 


9.9 


67.6 


1.1 


38 


Barley 


89.1 


8.7 


65.6 


1.6 




Malt sprouts (dry) . 


89.8 


18.6 


37.1 


1.7 


• 92 


Brewers' grains (wet) 


•21.:} 


3.9 


9.3 


1.4 


19 


Brewers' grains (dry) 


91.1 


14.7 


36.6 


4.8 


78 


Linseed meal 












(old process) . . 


90.8 


28.8 


32.8 


7.1 


119 


Linseed meal 












(new process) . . 


89.9 


28.2 


40.1 


2.8 


125 


Cowpea, seed . . . 


85.2 


18.8 


54.2 


1.1 


68 



CHAPTER XXXV 

THE MAKING OF A RATION 

Making up Rations. — Suppose you wisli a day's feed for 
a horse of good size that is doing heavy work, and you have 
oats, pea vine hay, and Bermuda hay. Ten pounds of 
grain and 7 pounds each of the two hays would give 24 
pounds of dry, or nearly dry, feed, and not far from half 
of it will be grain. Let us make the calculation and find 
out if this food will afford the right amounts of nutrients. 
You see from Table Xo. 1 what amounts of digestible 
protein, carbo-hydrates, and fats 100 pounds of oats con- 
tain. You are to use 10 pounds of oats. Hence 10 pounds 
will contain 10 per cent of all that 100 pounds contain. 
Make a little table like Table No. 2 below. Find 10 per 
cent of the protein in the 100 pounds of oats, and put 
down in the column headed ''Protein." Do the same for 
the carbo-hydrates and fats. You are to feed 7 per cent 
of 100 pounds of each of the hays. Perform the same 
operations for these. Then add each column. 

By this method you get the total of each nutrient. 
This is perhaps near enough the right amounts of nutrients 
for all practical purposes. If, instead of ten pounds of 
oats, six pounds of oats and four pounds of corn were 
given, we should have almost exactly the standard 
amounts of nutrients first named for a heaAdly worked 

244 



THE MAKING OF A RATION 



245 



horse, a milk cow, iiiul a fattening steer. You should not 
forget that a small horse, especially if doing liglit work, 
will not need so much feed. 

Fats Strong Feeds. — You have learned that fat performs 
the same work in the animal body that is done by carbo- 
hydrates. But the fat is stronger. A pound of digested 
fat will produce as much fat in tlie body and make as 
much heat and energy as two and a (juarter pounds of 
digested carbo-hydrates. 



TABLP: No. 2 





Protein 


Cakho-iivdhates 


Fat 


Ten pounds of oats contain 
Seven pounds cowpea hay 

contain 
Seven pounds Bermuda hay 

contain 


.92 

.756 

.483 


4.73 
2.70 
2.73 


.42 

.077 
.0,56 


Total 


2.1.59 


10.16 1 .553 



Nutritive Ratio. — We hear a good deal of the nutritive 
ratio of feeds. That means the proportion of digestible 
protein in a feed stuff or in a ration to the digestible 
carbo-hydrates and fats combined. Multiply the total fat, 
.553 pounds, in the ration above, as shown in Table No. 2, 
by 2.25; add the product to the total carbo-hydrates, 
10.16, and this gives tlie carbo-hydrates and fats com- 
l)ined. Then we have 2.159 pounds protein to 11.40-1: 
})ounds of carbo-hydrates and fats. Divide both amounts 
by the amount of protein, and we have 1 to 5.2, ap- 
proximately. 



246 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

Balanced Ration. — A balanced ration is one in which 
the proportion of protein to carbo-hydrates and fats is 
about right for best results. One to five and two-tenths 
is generally considered well balanced. Take the single 
feed, corn, in Table No. 1. It has 66.7 pounds digestible 
carbo-hydrates in 100 pounds; also 4.3 pounds fat, which, 
multiplied by 2.25, gives 9.675. Add this to 67.7, and 
we have 77.375. Divide by the protein, 7.9, and we have 
a ratio of 1 to 9.8. This is too wide for most purposes. 
That means that corn Avould not give best results as the 
entire feed of an animal. 

Make the same sort of calculation for cotton-seed meal, 
and it will show about 1 to 1.2, which is very narrow. 
Cotton-seed meal would never do as the entire feed for 
cattle. If cattle run on dry pastures or stalk fields and 
gather coarse food enough to make the necessary rough- 
age and furnish needed carbo-hydrates somewhat to bal- 
ance the cotton-seed meal, then it may be fed alone with 
good results by properly limiting the quantity. If cotton- 
seed meal and corn meal are fed together, they balance 
each other, but all concentrated feeds must be limited in 
the quantity fed. A mixture of these two feeds and some 
hay or cotton-seed hulls for bulky feed may be fed with 
good results. 

Hogs and Sheep eat much Concentrated Food. — Hogs 
eat from two to three times as much digestible food in 
proportion to live w^eight as cattle. The food for hogs 
must be more concentrated, but the proportion, or balance, 
should be about the same. Sheep eat more digestible 
food in proportion to live weight than cattle, and their 



THE MAKING OF A RATION 



24' 



food should have a larger proportion of concentrates. 
The balance, or proportions, should be about the same as 
for otlier animals. 

Suitable Rations. — As suitable daily rations for a milk 
cow the following are suggested to be divided and given 
in two feeds : — 



No. 1. 



No. 2. 



No. 8. 



8 lbs. (or qts.) cotton seed. 
10 lbs. prairie hay. 
8 lbs. cotton-seed hulls. 
2 lbs. (3 pts.) rice bran. 

4 lbs. (4 jDts.) cotton-seed meal. 

5 lbs. (7 pts.) rice bran. 

20 lbs. cotton-seed hulls, or sorghum hay. 

2 lbs. cotton-seed meal. 
5 lbs. cotton seed. 

3 lbs. wheat bran. 

16 lbs. Johnson grass, sorghum, crab-grass, or 
Bermuda hay. 



Cows giving large amounts of milk should have more, 
especially of concentrated feeds, and cows giving small 
amounts less, than the above rations call for. The student 
can make up many rations, and make necessary calcula- 
tions to see if they will be suitable. 

Variety of Food. — A general truth in animal feeding 
appears to be that two or more foods fed in combination 
with each other, or both fed during the same day, are 
more digestible than either fed alone. It seems generally 



248 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

to pay to add extra feeds to a mixture for variety, even 
when not necessary to balance tlie ration. 

Additions to Fattening Rations. — It has been found in 
all experiments in fattening steers on cotton-seed hulls 
and meal that a little corn meal or rice polish or cheap 
molasses added to the ration makes the steers fatten 
faster and finish better. In fattening cattle on corn or 
kafir corn with stover or hay for roughage, it has been 
found that a little cotton-seed meal or cotton seed may 
be very profitably added to the ration. These additions 
always make the gains more rapid and raise the value of 
the steers when sold. 

Feeding Cactus. — The prickly pear of Southwest Texas, 
which contains about nine-tenths water, and whose dry 
matter has a ratio of probably one to fifteen, has been 
profitably used to fatten beef cattle by adding cotton-seed 
meal. Dairy cattle also give good results from eating the 
prickly pear combined with cotton-seed meal and wheat 
bran. Tliese concentrates balance the pear feed, and the 
latter makes up the roughage. 

Mixed Feeds. — Grinding and mixing feeds is a very 
large business. About a half million tons of such feeds 
are sold in Texas annually. Such feeds are usually worth 
the money paid for them. Most states now have laws re- 
quiring inspection and analysis of all ground and mixed 
feeds offered for sale. These laws protect the buyers 
against dishonest mixtures, and protect the honest manu- 
facturers and mixers of feeds against unfair competition. 
The laws requiring inspection of feeds and fertilizers are 
of great value to the people. 



THE MAKlNCr OF A RATION 249 

Condition Powders. — Tlie so-called condition powders 
and foods, claimed to have high value on account of some 
medicine contained, and sold at high prices, have been 
found to have no more value than so much corn meal, 
Avheat bran, and oil meal. It has been established that 
liealthy animals or })oultry need no medicine, and that 
they will be harmed rather than helped by it. It has 
been found that cooking feeds has generally been harmful 
rather than beneficial. Soaking, and especially souring, 
feeds has been also unprofitable. 

QUESTIONS 

What do you understand by nutritive ratio V Go to the blackboard 
and select any feed-stuff in Table 1 and calculate its nutritive ratio. 
What is a wide ratio and what is a narrow ratio? What is a bal- 
anced ration ? Can you pick out kinds and amounts of feeds in Table 
1 that will constitute a balanced ration for a certain animal? How 
uould Table 1 enable you to estimate the value of animal manures? 
Of what advantage is it to give a number of feeds to animals? 
AMiat feeds make profitable additions to cotton-seed meal and hulls 
for feeding cattle? AVliat feeds are profitable to add to corn or kafir 
corn and hay or stover in fattening cattle? What curious product is 
fed in Southwest Texas? What does this feed need to balance it? 
Tell about the mixed feeds so largely sold. What laws are needed to 
control this business? Are condition powders and medicated foods 
of any value ? Is cooking feeds usually profitable? 

Experiment. — Suppose you try feeding a milk cow for a few days 
in winter on corn meal and grass hay or hulls. This will be quite a 
narrow ratio. Then try cotton-seed meal and the same hay and note 
the difference in milk yield. 

Calculate the fertilizing value of each ration proposed on page 217. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

ANIMAL DISEASES 

Prevention of Sickness. — Every farmer should know 
something of veterinary seience^ or how to prevent his 
animals from getting disease, and how to cure disease, but 
remembering " an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
cure." Careful feeding and watering a horse, and not 
driving him too fast after a full feed, will usually keep him 
sound and well. If he is made sick by overfeeding, fol- 
lowed by overwork, perhaps no amount of medicine will 
care him. If fed when thirsty, he is likely to drink too 
mucli water after eating and make himself sick. 

Contagious Diseases. — Often the carcasses of horses 

that have died of diseases like glanders and charbon serve 

to spread these diseases. Vultures and dogs carry the 

germs from the dead animals to where they infect healthy 

ones. Tlie bodies of animals dying of contagious diseases 

should be burned. Thousands of dollars' worth of fine, fat 

cattle often die of a disease called hlaek-leg because the 

owners neglect to get a vaccine virus and inoculate the 

cattle. If horses and cattle are properly inoculated, they 

become immune for about a year to charbon, a deadly 

disease often ravaging tlie large river delta sections of the 

Gulf States. Many years ago cattle brought from the 

North, or from the elevated West, to the lowlands of 

the South, almost always died of Avhat people call accli- 

250 



ANIMAL DISEASES 251 

mation fever. The cattle that had never had ticks got 
ticks on them and took the disease we now know as Texas 
feve}% or tick fever, and died. The Southern cattle driven 
North or West left a deadly trail that killed all Northern 
cattle crossing it. It is now known that the Southern 
cattle dropped ticks from their bodies, and these ticks got 
on the native cattle, and gave them the deadly fever. 

It has been found that even in South Texas, Louisiana, 
or Georgia, cattle raised by being tied out on cultivated 
land never have an}^ ticks, and if ticks get on them, they 
die as readily as Northern cattle. It has also been found 
that young calves may get the ticks on them without 
being harmed, and they become immune. That is, they 
are free from taking the disease, just as you are free from 
the danger of measles after having had it once. 

Inoculating against Tick Fever. ■ — It has been more 
recently found that if Northern cattle are inoculated 
when brought South, they have only a mild case of 
Texas fever, and usually recover. The inoculation con- 
sists of simply iujecting into their veins a little of 
the blood of native cattle that have had ticks. Many 
thousands of Northern cattle brought into South Texas 
for breeding have been immunized in this way during the 
last ten years. The Veterinary Department of the Texas 
Agricultural and Mechanical College has taken a leading 
part in the interesting scientific investigations that have 
been so helpful in controlling the Texas fever. 

Quarantine Line. — The Department of Agriculture 
at Washington indicates the northern limit of the cattle 
tick by a crooked line running across the country from 



252 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

the Atlantic coast in North Carolina to the Mexican 
border of West Texas. This line turns south as it be- 
gins to approach the elevated plains in Texas. The last 
Congress made an appropriation to be used in destroying 
the tick. Active efforts are in progress in almost all the 
Southern States to kill out the tick in the more northerly 
sections of the infested district. The tick's only means 
of living is the blood which it sucks from cattle. There- 
fore, if all cattle are removed from a pasture for two 
or three months in summer, all the ticks in that pasture 
Avill die of starvation. So, by merely dividing the pastures 
and changing the cattle from one to the other, the tick 
can be killed out. 

The people have stock laws in all sections adjacent to 
the quarantine line, so that no cattle are allowed to run 
at large. Whenever the Department at Washington finds 
that a county is rid of ticks, the quarantine line is moved 
that much farther south. In this way the free zone is 
from time to time being enlarged. 

Advantage of living above Quarantine Line. — To be 
above the quarantine line is a matter of great advantage 
to the cattle raiser. He can ship breeding stock to or 
from any part of the North. But his greatest advantage 
is that he can ship cattle to any part of the North or West 
for grazing and feeding. Tlie best grazing is found and 
most of the feeding is done north of the quarantine line. 
This makes a demand for cattle that enables the farmer 
above the line to get good prices. The man south of the 
line cannot ship his cattle north of it, except for immediate 
slaughter. This, of course, compels him to sell at a lower 



ANIMAL DISEASES 258 

price. Therefore all counties and districts joining the 
line should cooperate in an effort to kill out the tick and 
move the quarantine line south of them. 

Hog Cholera. — Hog cholera is often carried by a creek 
or stream from an infected farm to another farm below. 
Hogs dying of disease shonld be burned to prevent dogs 
and vultures from carrying the germs of the disease to 
other lots or other farms. If an outbreak cannot be 
prevented by quarantine and sanitary precautions, the 
best tiling for the farmer to do is to divide up his herd 
into several lots, putting them on high ground, if possible, 
and carefully removing all sick animals. Medical treat- 
ment is of little avail in case of hog cholera. Inoculation 
as a preventive or cure has not yet been successful. 

People used to have very many absurd ideas about 
animal diseases and their treatment. It used to be very 
common to see cows and oxen with a number of little 
holes bored in their horns. This was done to cure a 
supposed disease called hollow-horn. There is really 
no such disease, and the cattle got well in spite of the 
boring. Another supposed disease was hollow-tail, and 
many cattle had their tails split open and salt and 
pepper and other remedies put in under the skin. This, 
too, was worse than useless. Then cows were supposed to 
lose their "cud," and salt dish-rags were crammed down 
their throats as a substitute for the "cud." Horses had 
"hooks" cut out of their eyes, had their mouths burned 
for lampers, and received other kinds of brutal treatment 
for real or imaginary diseases. 

These notions about animal diseases are only a little 



254 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

less foolish than those held by the old negro woman who 
rubbed fresh milk on a cow's back to get the devil out 
of her. See Appendix for treatment of animal diseases. 



QUESTIONS 

What precautions should be taken to prevent sickness of horses ? 
AVhat should be done to prevent spread of contagious or infectious 
aiiinial diseases? What diseases can be prevented by inoculation? 
What causes acclimation fever? What is Texas fever and how is 
it spread? What causes death of Northern cattle grazing on land 
that Southern cattle pass over ? What can be done to save Northern 
cattle when brought South? What is the quarantine line? Is this 
line moved from time to time ? Is it more profitable to have cattle 
north of this line or south of this line? Give reasons. How is hog- 
cholera spread ? What are some of the foolish notions people have 
about animal diseases ? 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

Growing Live Stock and Live-stock Products. — Prob- 
ably very mucb more than half of the products of the 
farms of the country is converted into animal products 
before final consumption. People cannot eat grass 
and hay and cotton seed as such, but when these prod- 
ucts are converted into juicy beefsteak, tender mut- 
ton-chop, or golden butter, who could wish anything 
better ? All the produce of pasture and meadow lands, 
virtually all the corn and oats produced, the by-products 
of wheat, barley, rice, sugar-cane, sugar-beet, cotton-seed, 
etc., pass into animal products before they are used by 
human beings. Even some animal products, like dried 
blood, tankage, meat-scraps, bones, skim-milk, etc., are 
fed to poultry, hogs, or other animals, and re-converted 
into animal products. 

Animal Machines. — ^In one sense, raising live stock 
may be considered as a manufacturing process by which 
bulky, nearly worthless farm products may be converted 
into valuable concentrated or refined products. A ton of 
gold-bearing ore having i5 worth of gold in it could not 
be easily handled or shipped ; but put the ore through the 
great crushers and smelters and get the $b in gold out, 
and it will not cost one per cent of its value to send it 
to St. Petersburg or Tokyo. We might have a ton of hay 

255 



256 ELEMENTS OF AGRICl-LTURE 

on a farm ten miles from a railroad, and it would not 
bring enough to justify baling and hauling, but we run it 
through our condensing machine, the steer, and it turns 
us out 100 pounds of beef and a good lot of manure to 
enrich the land. The by-product, the manure, is of course 
too heavy and too low in value to market, but the main 
product is valuable enough to ship to Chicago or London. 
Our condensing machine carries it to the railroad and 
loads it on the cars. 

Another good thing about these living machines is that 
theyare self-oiling and gather so mucli of their oavu raw 
material. They gather grass and weeds and brush that 
we could not afford to cut and save, and make them into 
goods of high value. 

Improved Machine. — But we have another highly im- 
proved condensing machine that deserves to be patented. 
By consuming a ton of hay, or its equivalent, in suitable 
mixtures with other food, this machine will turn out for 
us fifty pounds of fine butter, worth seven or eight times 
as much a pound as the beef. We can afford to ship this 
product anywhere by express, but for fancy prices we need 
not ship it farther than our Southern cities. 

Other Machines. — The sheep and angora goat convert 
food into wool and mohair, valuable products that will keep 
indefinitely. 

The most rapid-working four-legged machine we have 
is the hog. It will make probably as much meat out of 
ten pounds of feed as the steer will make out of thirty 
pounds, but the hog cannot use as coarse raw material as 
is used by the other animals mentioned. We would not 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 257 

like to eat grasshoppers, bugs, worms, and snails, as poor 
Chinese and Japanese children do. But Ave have a small, 
cheap farm-machine that does not have to be run even by 
hand, which converts all of these things into little pack- 
ages of rich, palatable human food, sealed up into little 
air-tight cases, or cans. Can you name this machine ? 

Machines for Work. — Somewhat as we feed coal and 
wood into a traction engine and get work, we feed hay 
and oats and corn into our horses and mules and get work. 
As the best corn, oat, and hay lands have increased in 
value to ^75 and rf 150 per acre, and as horses and feed 
stuffs have risen in value, as a necessary consequence of 
high land values, people are casting about to see if they 
cannot plow with traction engines more clieaply than with 
horses. But the horse has risen in value in spite of trolley- 
cars, automobiles, and bicycles, and we shall continue to 
find use or sale for all o'ood horses and mules we can raise. 



QUESTIONS 

Ts much of the pTOcluce of the land converted into animal products? 
What substances unfit for human food may be converted into excel- 
lent hunum food by feeding to animals? Are any animal products 
converted into other animal products? What comparison is made of 
a steer to a machine ? AMiat does tlie cow use as raw materials and 
what products does she turn out? AVhat do sheep and angora goats 
consume and what products are given ? What machine works most 
rapidly in proportion to size ? What machine tnrns out canned food? 
What product does the horse return? Do high land values make 
high-priced feed stuff? Can people plow economically with steam- 
power ? 

Experiment. — Use score cards in Appendix and practice judging 
horses and cattle. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

RAISING HORSES AND MULES 

Horses on the Plains. — -Horses thrive remarkably Avell 
on the Plains and in the dry elevated sections of the great 
AVest. They seem to winter on the ranges even better 
than cattle, and horses raised in that section certainly have 
muscle, bone, and endurance equal to any horse Arabia or 
the Barbary States ever bred. But the land on these 
plains is rapidly getting too high-priced for exclusive graz- 
ing purposes. The five to ten acres of land necessary for 
keeping a grown animal a year does not yield a net in- 
come of more than fifty cents an acre, or about enough 
to pay a reasonable interest when the land is worth five 
dollars an acre. But since these lands for a good distance 
west of the 100th meridian of longitude have passed the 
five-dollar valuation mark, ranches are being rapidly cut 
up and sold for farms. So the horse of the future and the 
cow of the future must be raised more and more under 
farm conditions and less and less under range conditions. 

On the Farms. — To raise horses with the most profit 
on the farm, plenty of good home-grown feeds and good 
rich pastures must be provided, and the mares must be 
made to earn their living by doing farm work. Mares, 
in order properly to nourish their young, should have rich 
milk-producing foods, like clover, alfalfa, peanut, or pea- 

258 



RAISlNCi HOUSES AND MULES 



259 



vine hay, oats, and wheat bran. A colt pushed ah)ng with 
proper nourislnnent will not only make a larger horse, but 
will reach a marketable size a year sooner. 

Pure-bred Horses. — It is not desirable that most men 
should undertake to raise pure-bred horses. While pure- 




Fk;. <);>. Coach Type 

Ijred horses, or mixed-blooded horses of special types for 
special purposes, will find buyers at extra good prices, the 
majority of farmers are not ready for special-purpose 
horses. Most farmers are not so specialized in their busi- 
ness as to want a heavy draft horse for hauling, a carriage 



2(33 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICL'LTrilE 



horse, and a fancy saddle horse. They must, for the most 
part, use horses of general-purpose qualiiies, or mules, 
which are hard to surpass as general-purpose animals. 



&k 






w, 




f 


<. ,-*"f ^ 


^wsssF3WP5^ir'-^ 




i|2 ' 11^' '^ ^s^^n^U^I^^H 


1 




1 1 


t 


^yfi^^/l^ -ti^ "*■' Jm 




' 


1 


.c; ^ •. ' "-'^;-?si^.?si 












^./^/■' 


■i 



Fig. \U. — Draft Type: Pkuchkuox 



Under present conditions raising good liorses and mules 
ought to be very profitable. We raise a thousand-pound 
steer, fatten him, and sell him for five cents a pound, if 



RAISING HORSES AND MULES 261 

he is an especiiilly good one. A good mule of tlie same 
weight would easil}^ bring fifteen cents a pound ; and if 
the mother earns her feed on the farm, the cost of raising 
the mule could hardly exceed the cost of raising the steer 
by more than two or three cents a pound. We have seen 
that horses eat no more each day than cattle, that their 
food is not very much more expensive, and we know 
horses and mules grow about as fast as cattle. 

Classes and Breeds. — The classes of horses are the draft 
breeds composed of heavy, large-boned, slow-moving types, 
weighing from 1500 to 2200 pounds ; the coach, or car- 
riage, types of stylish-looking horses, weigliing from 1200 to 
1400 pounds, that hold their lieads high, pick up their feet 
well, and combine streiigth with good speed and style ; 
the light types, including the English race-horse, the 
American trotter, the near relative of the racer, and the 
American saddle horse, rather closely related to the last 
two. Then there are the ponies, such as broncoes, or 
mustangs, Indian ponies, etc., and the Shetlands. 

There are many breeds of draft liorses, including the 
Percheron, Clydesdale, Belgian Draft, French Draft, 
English Shire, and otliers. The coach breeds are the 
Cleveland Bay, French Coach, German Coach, and others. 
There is much interest in the United States just now in 
developing new breeds of horses in America that will 
meet the needs of the country better than existing breeds, 
nearly all of European development. The Department of 
Agriculture at A¥ashington is undertaking this work. 
Interest is reviving also in the Morgan horse, certainly 
one of the best general-purpose horses ever known. 



262 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

See tlie Appendix for diseases of the horse and the reme- 
dies for these diseases. 



QUESTIOXS 

Whei-e do horses thrive under range conditions? What is the 
reason horses and cattle must be raised still more largely on the 
farms? What sort of feeds must mares have properly to nourish 
their^colts? Can farm mares work and raise good colts? Do most 
people need pure-bred horses of some type? What kind of horse 
suits most men, a special-purpose or a general-purpose horse? \^''hat 
comparison is made of the costs and selling prices of steers and mules? 
What types of liorses are named? What breeds belonging to each 
type? What efforts are being made to develop new breeds? 



CHAPTER XXXIX 



CATTLE 

Cattle are now kept for two main purposes, for pro- 
ducing beef and for producing dairy products. The time 
has been that cattle, like the buffalo of the plains, were 
slaughtered for their hides and tallow. In early times, 
cattle were kept for work, and this is still to some extent 
true. 




Fig. 95. — Zebu, or Sacred Bull of India 

Sacred Cattle. — A different species of cattle is found in 
India, Java, Borneo, and the Soutli Sea Islands. Some of 
these are said to be taller than our largest horses, and 
some, the little trotting bulls of ('eylon, to be not over 
three feet liigh. A vast number of cattle is raised in the 
Chinese Empire, and, so far as tlie author has seen them, 

263 



1>(U ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

thej appear to be a cross between the Zebu cattle and the 
European cattle. Some East Indian cattle have been 
brought to Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. They are 
very hardy, free from disease, arc bitten but little by 
ticks, and they make fine work cattle and good beef. 

Classes and Breeds of Cattle. — ^Our European races of 
cattle have been bred into more or less distinct types for 
different uses, and these types into different breeds, each 
with' its own special characteristics. We have beef cattle, 
general-purpose, or dual-purpose, cattle, and dairy cattle. 
The principal l)reeds of beef cattle are tlie Shorthorns, 
Herefords, Aberdeen Angus, and Galloways. The dual- 
purpose cattle are natives, Devons, Red Polls, and some 
strains of Shorthorns, or Durhams as they are sometimes 
called. Dairy cattle include Jerseys, Guernseys, llol- 
steins, and Ayrshires. The Jerseys and Guernseys give 
rich milk, wdiile the Holsteins and Aj^rshires give larger 
quantities of poorer milk. 

Dual-purpose Cattle. — A large number of American 
farmers do not wish cattle that are higldy specialized or 
useful mainly for one purpose. They wish what some 
term diial-pm-pose cattle; that is, cattle that are fairly 
good for dairying and fairly good for beef. It is probably 
not true, as some have contended, that such cattle are 
necessarily less profitable than special-purpose cattle. 
Neither is it true that pure-bred cattle are necessarily 
more protitable for all people than native cattle or grades. 
It is seldom that any good quality is secured and fixed in 
a race of live stock without the loss of some other desir- 
able quality. 



CATTLE 



2t5n 



Value of Breeding in Beef Animals. — First. The beef 
breeds of cattle grow larger than native eat tie, [)artieularly 
tlie native cattle found in the South. 

Second. Beef-bred cattle always dress, out a higher 
percentage of beef for a given live weight than native or 





Fig. <)(). — Dual Purpose Cattle 
Devon Bull above Red Polled Cow below 

dairy-bred cattle equally fat, — in a large niunber of experi- 
ments as much as two to ten per cent. 

Third. The dressed carcass of a l)eef-l)red steer con- 
tains less tallow, wliicli is a low-priced product, than the 
carcass of a dairv-bred steer. 



2m ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

Fourth. In a number of tests made by the experiment 
stations, the loin steak and rib roast of the beef -bred 
steers have been judged to have a higher value, than the 
same cuts from steers from dairy or scrub cattle. In other 
tests no difference in value of these cuts was made. 

Fifth. It is generally held by butchers and packers 
that beef -bred cattle produce meat with the fat and lean 
better mixed than is the case with other cattle. There is, 
therefore, probably a difference in value in favor of the 
carcass of the beef-bred steer, which has not always been 
taken into account by experimenters. 

Sixth. Tlie highest grades of all products come nearer 
bringing full values than common grades. All slaughter 
tests made by the stations indicate that meat packers 
make more profit out of dairy-bred and common cattle 
than they do out of the better grades. The unifoi-m 
colors and better appearance of the latter doubtless help 
them to bring fuller values. 

Fine Stock not Rustlers. — riie sliort-horn and Holstein 
cattle have been fed and bred to produce large frames 
and great weights. Yet they are the i)oorest rustlers of 
our breeds of cattle. Many farmers, not knowing this 
peculiarity, have expected their short-horn cattle to rustle 
like native cattle, and have been disappointed to see their 
fancy cattle die or become tlie poorest cattle in the neigh- 
borhood. 

The average farmer of the South, who is generally not 
a stockman, often buys broad-backed, pure-bred hogs, and 
turns them into the wood-lot to ''root, hog, or die." If 
the hogs survive, they soon degenerate into thin, ugly 



CATTLE 



-H\' 





Fig. 97. — Beef Cattle 

(Irade Shorthorn Steer above 
(jrrade Hereford Steer below 



268 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

razor-backs. Every farmer should be impressed with the 
fact that tine stock requires extra care, and that feed 
counts for far more than breed. 

Pure Animals gain no More for Feed eaten than Scrubs. 
— There is at present a very prevalent but erroneous im- 
pression that a bushel of corn will produce more growth 
when fed to a pure-bred beef animal than wlien fed to a 
dairy-bred animal or native. Surely, if breeding has im- 
l)roved the appetite and digestion of beef animals, the 
same sort of breeding must have been pursued with dair}- 
animals, because milk cows eat and digest large amounts 
of food. 

It has been demonstrated again and again that an ani- 
mal of no one breed or type eats any more, digests any 
better, or gains any faster than an animal of any other 
l)reed or type, when both are of the same size and condi- 
tion at the time the test is made. It has also been proved 
that animals of no fixed breed or type — natives — eat as 
much, digest as well, and gain as fast as animals of fixed 
types or breeds, if all are of the same age, size, and condi- 
tion when the feeding test is made. To verify these as- 
sertions, readers are referred to Henry's ''Feed and 
Feeding,'' page 37-1:: Iowa Bulletins, 20 and 81; Kansas 
liulletin. 111; INIinnesota, No. 73: Wisconsin, No. 104; 
and Mississippi, No. 76, all of wliich bear on the subject. 

Early Maturity. — It is commonly claimed that pure- 
bred, meat-jfroducing animals mature earlier than the 
other animals. If maturing earlier means to get grown 
quicker, it is an erroneous claim. The truth seems to be 
that a Jersev calf, beiuQf smaller Avlien l)orn tlian a sliort- 



CATTLE 2(39 

horn calf, does not eat quite so mueli or grow quite so 
fast as a shorthorn. If, then, both ealves are fed all they 
can eat, the Jersey would probably grow larger than is 
usual with that breed, but, being all the time a little 
smaller than the shorthorn, eats a little less, gains a little 
more slowly, and reaches maturity at about the same 
time. 

If early maturity is understood to mean a tendency to 
get fat at an early age, it is certain a beef-bred steer will 
not fatten at an earlier age than a Jersey, if both are fed 
equall}^ well. If early maturity is understood to mean 
that the fiesli of the beef-bred steer will be of better 
quality, or riper, at an early age, than the flesh of the 
dairy-bred or native steers, it is generally believed that 
this is true. 

Cattle in Texas. — The state of Texas has more cattle 
than anv other state in the Union, somethiup^ over eieht 
million head, or about one to ever}^ twenty acres. In cer- 
tain rich districts of Holland, Denmark, and Belgium one 
cow to the acre may be found, but food must be imported 
to help feed these cattle. 

Cattle enrich Land. — ^If Texas depended on feeding 
cattle to enrich the land, as some countries do, the one 
cow to twenty acres would hardly manure the gardens 
and truck patches. It is said that the present dairy dis- 
tricts of Wisconsin were formerly grown in wheat until 
the land became so exhausted that the people, being no 
longer able to make a living by raising wheat, turned 
tlieir attention to dairying. They are again unable to 
raise wheat profitably, but it is because the soil has be- 



'>H) 



ELEMENTS OF AGKICUJ/rUKE 



come so excessively rich as to cause the straw to grow 
too tall, so that it falls down, or ''lodges." 

Cattle and Rotation. — In many sections where cattle 
and other live stock are regularly kept on farms, pastur- 
ing has been generally introduced as a part of the rotation. 
I>ut in the South the lands are so often irregular in 
(piality that those which are not suited for cultivation 
ai'c usually selected for pasture. By keeping cattle in 



n 


^i 


it -^"'k- 




^.^.: 


VppPMMT ^^^^■Wb"' 


b -.. :- 











Fig. 98. 



S MOWING Bkef Cattle at Texas Agricultural and 
Mechanical College 



barns only a very small part of the year, and allowing 
them to run in pastures not belonging to the farm proper. 
Southern farmers get far less value from the manure than 
the Northern farmer, who stables and feeds his cattle for 
six months in winter, and pastures them on a part of the 
farm land in summer. 

Poor Stock due to Poor Land. — The poorest cattle in 
the United States, perhaps, are those raised on the pine 
meadows of Florida. West of this, along the pine flats 



CATTLE 271 

of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and along tlie coast 
prairies of Louisiana and East Texas, the cattle are still 
small and inferior, and grow slowly. And the hogs in 
these sections, when left to get their living from the woods 
and forests, are thin, ngly little razor-backs. This gen- 
eral inferiority of the live stock is not entirely, or mainly, 
due to poor breeding, as most people say. The grasses 
that grow on poor land in wet, warm countries are coarse 
and innutritions. Tlie scanty, poor food for hogs is so 
scattered and difficult to find, and requires so much 
traveling and rooting, tliat no other type of hog would 
find enough to live on. 

As we go west along the coast prairies and reach the 
rich river deposits, we find much better cattle. Still 
farther west, we reach drier, richer land and better 
cattle. North and northwest, we have still better cattle, 
regardless of breeding, although the cattle are generally 
better bred. 

When the small cattle of the coast marshes of Louisi- 
ana and Texas are given a year or two of grazing on the 
nutritious grasses of the Panhandle, they approach the 
well-bred Hereford grades in flesh, shape, and quality. 

Rich Land, Rich Food. — It has been suggested that 
the Texas fever tick produces in the blood of Southern 
cattle a slow, constant poison that keeps them from grow- 
ing and gaining fast like Northern cattle. While this is 
probable, the difference is due more to difference in the 
richness of land, and conse(|uently in tlie nutritive 
qualities of the feed. It is well known that grass grown 
on land rich in nitrogen will be generally richer in protein 



272 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 

than grass grown on poor land; also that grass grown on 
land rich in lime is much richer in l)()ne-making material 
than that grown on poor, sandy land. It is well known 
that the richer any grass is the more digestible it is. 
Cattle living on coarse marsh grass must eat a large bulk 
of it to get even scanty nourishment, and they grow big- 
bellied and appear to have small quarters. With two 
years of grazing ricli Northern and Western grasses, these 
cattle become round-bodied, respectable-looking animals. 

Again, when cattle far south are well fed on cotton- 
seed meal and hulls, corn-meal, rice-bran and polisli, black- 
strap molasses, and other rich foov], they gain weight 
rapidly and become in shape and quality not greatly in- 
ferior to Nortliern cattle, equally well fattened. 

Dairy Cows. — Very few direct tests for milk and bntter 
have been made of herds of dairy-bred cattle as compared 
with scrub cattle. Individual cows of all breeds yar}'- 
so much in the amount of milk and butter they give that 
it would be exceedingly difficult to secure very definite 
results as to the relative producing ca[)acity of the dif- 
ferent breeds. The tests of the dairy-breeds against each 
otlier have been very unsatisfactory. These tests have 
not proved one breed more valuable than another. 

The truth is, one breed is best for one man in one 
location, and another breed is best for another man in 
another location, and so on, and the differences are prob- 
ably not great in any case. Still other men would do 
best with a general-purpose, or dual-purpose, cow, whether 
of a distinct breed or not. 

One station in testing the best types of cows, as sliown 



CATTLE 278 

on page 288, against beefy types of cows, found, in ex- 
treme cases, that the butter made from the latter costs 
fifty per cent more in food eaten than the butter made 
from the former. It must be borne in mind that some 
natives, dual-purpose cows, Shortliorns, and even Here- 
fords, will be better dairy cows than some Jerseys and 
Hoi steins, but as a rule better dairy cows will be found in 
the dairy breeds. 

There will be found good cows and poor cows in all 
breeds. Average cows of all breeds are perhaps hardly 
profitable as dairy animals ; yet by rigid selections profit- 
able cows can be obtained from all breeds. Pure-bred 
animals do not make up one per cent of all animals in the 
South. Therefore, in selecting a dairy herd, one has so 
many native and grade animals to choose from, that he 
may easily gather from among these an excellent herd. 
Grading up native and grade herds by the use of pure 
bulls of dairy breeds is the plan followed by most success- 
ful dairymen. 

See Appendix for diseases of cattle and their treatment. 

QUi:STIOXS 

What purposes are cattle kept for ? Do all farmers want special- 
purpose cattle V What are dual-purpose cattle ? Do all farmers need 
pure-breed cattle ? What disadvantage do the larger breeds of cattle 
have? What mistakes are made with fine hogs sometimes ? Wliat 
sort of treatment must improved stock have? What sort of animal 
will gain most for a given amount of food eaten? What are the real 
advantages of beef-bred cattle? Are these advantages as large as 
many believe? Which does the buyer make more profit on, the beef- 
bred or the scrub steer? What other reason is given for better prices 
paid for beef-bi'ed steers? Does there appear to be any truth in the 



274 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTUKE 

common claim that pure animals mature earlier than grade animals 
when both are fed alike? What comparison is made of a .Jersey and a 
Short-horn calf? Do beef-steers fatten at an earlier age than other 
steers, if fed alike? What have tests of dairy cows proved? Is there 
any best breed? Which is more important, feeding or breeding? 
AVhat state has most cattle? Why do cattle not serve to enrich land 
as mucli in the South as in the North? Where are small, sorry cattle 
found in the United States? Is this inferiority owing to poor breed- 
ing? Where are better cattle fouiui ? What makes the poor cattle 
on the marshes and pine meadows? What change takes place when 
these small cattle are grazed on rich land farther north? Why is the 
range hog a razor-back ? Are grasses richer and more digestible if 
grown on rich land? Can we make good cattle out of sorry Southern 
cattle by feeding them well? What are some good feeds for this 
purpose ? 



CHAPTER XL 

HOGS, SHEEP, GOATS, POULTRY, AND BEES 

Different Types of Hogs. — There are several types of 
liogs. The Poland-China is generally spoken of as a 
lard and side-meat hog. But the proportion of iard 
and fat meat to other parts in these hogs does not differ 
widely from that in other hogs if they are fed and 
handled in the same way. The kind and amounts of 
food eaten change the products more than differences 
of breed. The Tamworth, which is prized as a bacon 
hog, is supposed to produce strips of bacon with lean 
and fat nicely mixed. This tendency, however, is seri- 
ously interfered with when the Tamw'orth is highly 
fed on fattening food. But when pastured and fed 
skimmed milk, shorts, bran, etc., it produces the nice lean 
bacon desired, and so does the Berkshire or Yorkshire. 
Here, again, the feed has more influence than breed. The 
finest hog-meat product'of the w^orld is the Smithfield ham, 
cured in Virginia from razor-back hogs that run half wild 
most of their lives in the w^oods. When they get nearly 
two years old, their owners let them run on peanut and 
sweet potato patches, and then feed them awhile on corn 
before killing them. A hog so raised and handled will 
have a larger proportion of lean meat, and the meat will 
be better flavored than that of rapidly grown and fattened 



275 



276 



ELEMENTS OF AGRTCULTIRE 



Feeding Test. — Bulletin 104 of the Wisconsin Experi- 
ment Station gives a most interesting account of feeding 
a large number of pigs from birth to maturity. Some of 
these pigs were pure Texas razor-backs, some Poland- 




Tam worth 





Mk 


^^^g^l^^ 


mii 






1 


's^^'Mif'i^'^ 


■ 




■ 




K 


p 


WSm 


1 




I 




1 


1 




1 


^B^W 


■ 




^r 


J^. 







Diuoc .lersey 
Fig. i)0. — Breeds of Swine 



Cliinas, and some Berkshires ; and others were crosses 
between razor-l^acks and the pure breeds. The genuine 
razor-backs did not make as good gains as the pure-bred 
hogs, but they dressed out nearly as well, and actually 
made each hundred pounds of gain on a little less food 
than the others. This and numerous other experiments 



JI()(;s, SHEEP, GOATS, POULTRY, AND BEES 277 

prove tliat feed amounts to more than "breeding" in 
making a meat animal. 

It is true with hogs, as with all live stock, that when 
the animals are small and 3 oung, a given amount of gain 




Poland-China 




Berkshire 
Fig. 100. — Breeds of Swine 



in weight can be made with much less food. For instance, 
with suckling pigs, one and a half pounds of dry digest- 
il)le food in milk or other food material will produce a 
pound of growth. In growing from thirty to one hundred 
})ounds in weight, about two and a half pounds of digest- 
ible food will be needed for each pound gained. In 
growing from one hundred to two hundred weight, about 



278 



ELKMEXTS OF AGRICULTURE 



four pounds of digestible food to each pound gained will 
be needed ; and in growing from two hundred to three 
hundred weight, probably five or six pounds will be re- 
quired. So it can readily be sejn tliat hogs should not 
be grown very large, if we wisli to make most proiit. 




Fig. 101. — Razor-backs for want of Feed 

Pasture for Hogs. — Pasture is very necessary in order 
to raise hogs cheaply. Many people keep hogs in a dry 
lot and fatten them on corn. Corn has not enough pro- 
tein, or muscle-making material, to cause young hogs to 
grow economically or rapidly. 

Pork rfijsed on high-priced corn, fed in a dry lot, cer- 
tainly costs over ten cents a pound. One or two pounds 
of corn will usually make, when fed to young hogs run- 
ning on good green pasture like vetch, clover, alfalfa, or 
rape, a pound of growth. 



HOGS, SHEEP, GOATS, POULTKY, AND BEES 279 

With oats, vetch, bur clover, rape, and other crops for 
winter grazing ; and with sorghum, peas, and green corn 



□ 



PI 



UEi 




Fig. 102. — Movable Fence 

for summer ; and peas, peanuts, sweet 

potatoes, chufas, corn, kafir, etc., to 

fatten off the hogs in winter, pork can 

be raised very cheaply in the South 

and West. With a variety of crops 

like the ones mentioned, and small amounts of corn, these 

sections could raise bacon hogs enough to supply the 

world. Fed in this way, almost any kind or breed would 

make good bacon hogs. 

To handle hogs in this way would require a good deal 
of fence. A suitable amount of movable fencing built in 
panels, as shown in Figure 102, would go far to meet this 
difficulty. 

Sheep and Goats: where grown. — Most of the slieep 
and goats of the country are now raised on the dry lands 
of the West, and on lands that are too dry and rough 
for cattle to thrive well. The sheep of the West are 
almost entirely of the Spanish Merino type, or fine- 
wooled sheep, but they also bring about as high prices 
for mutton as the mutton breeds. On the farms of the 



280 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



country many sheep are raised, mostly of larger types, 
known as mutton breeds. Their wool is generally coarse, 
and some of it is so long that it can be combed out 
straight like hair. There is no doubt that they grow 
heavier fleeces in the North and on the elevated, cold 







Fig. lOo. — vShkep and Goats 
o. Merino; b. Honied Dorset; c. Southdown; rf. Angoras 



lands of the Rocky Mountain States than they do on 
the lowlands of the South. Sheep, like all other animals, 
grow heavier coats in cold countries. In the pine woods 
of the Gulf States, a good yield of wool is three pounds 
a head for range sheep. North and West, eight pounds 



IIOCjIS, SIlEEr, GOATS, POULTRY, AND 15EES 281 

are more often got, and individnal sheep have frequently 
prodnced fifty pounds in a season. 

Food and Manure. — Sheep eat almost any kind of 
Aveeds or grasses, and are useful on the farm for clean- 
ing pastures of weeds. They eat a larger proportion 
of concentrated feed than cattle, and produce richer 
manure. There is an old saying that "the sheep's 




Fi(i. 104. — Flock ok Angokas 

foot is golden," which probably means that the sheep 
makes money for its owner by enriching the land. It 
was once thought in England that cattle and slieep en- 
riched land by blowing their breath on it wlien eating 
grass. The people no doubt saw greater improvement 
in pasture land than the manure seemed to account 
for. Who knows but that the manure contains colonies 
of bacteria of highest value to land, which the cattle 
and sheep, in tramping over the pastures, spread from 



282 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



place to place ? Would not that be almost as curious 
and interesting as enriching the land with the breath? 

Profits in Sheep. — Sheep make about as much growth 
for a given amount of food eaten as do cattle, and for 
some years have sold rather higher than good cattle and 
much higher than average cattle. They give their wool 
product extra, which is an item of considerable importance. 
Sheep, then, are much more profitable than beef cattle, if 
they can be grown without too much trouble in fencing, 
protecting from dogs, wolves, etc. 




Fig. 105. — Sheep Ranching in the West 



Angora Goats. — A great deal of interest is now being 
taken in Angora goats, not only in the semiarid I'egions, 
but in the rainy sections east, where they are prized for 
cleaning up briers, bushes, and rubbish, and making the 
land easy to clear. The mohair trade of West Texas, 
New Mexico, Kansas, and other states is becoming im- 
portant, and prices received are profitable, but so far no 
product has been got equal to the mohair of Turkey 
and Persia. Whether this is due to the fact that the 



HOGS, SHEEP, GOATS, POULTRY, AND BEES 288 




goats in this country 
are not pure, or to 
some deficiency in the 
climate, we do not 
know. The Angora 
makes good mutton, 
and the skins sell for 
a good price. 

Poultry. — Poultry- 
raising is perhaps 
about as large in total 
returns in the United 

States as wheat grow- Fig. IOG. — Plymouth Rock 

ing, but it is carried on generally in a small way by nearly 
everybody, everywhere. The Chinaman makes as much 

food on a given area 
of land covered with 
water in the form of 
fish ponds as he can 
make on the best 
garden. A certain 
range for poultry 
will perhaps furnish 
bugs, worms, insects, 
seeds, etc., enough 
to produce meat and 
eggs to a high value 
as compared with the 
crops that might be 

Fui. 107. — Brown Leghorn grOWU on that range. 




284 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 






M}?ff^ 



( 'hickens are kept on a comparatively small area near the 
bouse. Turkeys and guinea fowls go long distances in 
search of their food. They may be made of very great 
value in destroying boll weevils. 'I'bey are both very 

profitable fowls 
t (^ grow, the 
guinea fowl be- 
ing the best egg- 
producer on the 
farm. Geese are 
not only valu- 
able for their 
feathers and for 
their meat, but 
may be made of 
great assistance 
to cotton farm- 
ers. In the dis- 
tricts where hoe- 

Fio. lOS. iJuoxzK Gobbler ^^^^ -^ expensive 

on account of crab grass, it is not too much to say that a 
goose to each acre of cotton will save half the expense 
of hoeing. 

Three types of fowls are shown in figures above. 

Bees, like fowls, convert something that would be lost 
without them into money. Sometimes an acre of land, 
devoted to certain crops, will afford several dollars' worth 
of honey. Certain large areas of country, partly forest, 
have been estimated to furnish over a dollar's worth of 
honey to every acre. 



HOGS, SHEEP, GOATS, l^OULTRY, AND BEES 285 

Nothing is more pleasant, instructive, and profitable to 
boys and girls than a few colonies of bees. They often 
make #5.00 a colony a year. If 3-ou procure a little book 
or bulletin on bees, you will learn to liandle them easily 
and can make money on them. 

QUESTIONS 

What is usually understood as the lar<l and side-meat liog? Why 
is the Tamworth called a bacon hog? Does feeding or breeding most 
influence the proportions of fat and lean meat? Are other breeds 
good bacon hogs? Could the Tamworth be fed into a lard hog? 
Will the native hogs make good bacon hogs? Mas any experiment 
indicated that native hogs are good feeders? Why should hogs not 
be grown large? Give different amounts of dry feed needed to make 
a pound of gain on different- sized hogs. Can hogs be raised profitably 
on corn alone? What must be chiefly provided to grow hogs? What 
are some different pasture crops for hogs suitable for different seasons ? 
Where are most of the sheep of the country raised ? What sort of 
sheep are raised on the ranges ? Do merino sheep sell well for mutton? 
What kinds of sheep are grown more on the farms? Where will 
sheep produce most wool, and why ? What sort of food do sheep eat? 
Do they enrich the land? What did people once think caused stock 
to enrich land? How about food eaten, growth made, and prices 
received for sheep as compared with beef cattle? What extra 
product do sheep give? Where are angora goats found mostly? 
What special use is made of them in the East? Is the mohair as 
fine as that of Turkey ? Tell the advantages of raising poultry. Tell 
something of bees. 

Experiment. — Suppose you put a razor-back shoat in one pen at 
home and a pure-bred shoat of about the same size in another. Feed 
them all they will eat and see if one eats more than the other. 
Weigh them when you first put them up, and w^eigh them at the end 
of a month or two of good feeding. See if their increase in size and. 
weight is the same. 



CHAPTER XLI 

DAIRYING 

Different Products. — Siiccessfal dairying, combining as 
it does farming and manufacturing, requires a high degree 
of skill and plenty of industr}^ Producing milk to be 
sold as such, cream for city trade, making butter, cheese, 
and condensed milk, all afford means of marketing milk. 
Milk is now being shipped by train loads as far as a hun- 
dred miles to large cities. Cream is shipped in car loads 
from Chicago to New Orleans. Butter and cheese, of 
course, can be shipped almost any distance, while con- 
densed, canned milk is largely exported to South America 
and Oriental countries. 

Silage, or ensilage (green corn cut in short lengths and 
kept green in a big air-tight room, or silo), is coming to be 
a standard dairy feed for winter. 

Milking machines are now coming into use and promise 
o'reat saving: in labor. So far the machines have not been 
able to milk quite so thoroughly as the hand milker, but 
this will doubtless soon be accomplished. 

Elements of Success. — Good cows, good, rich pastures, 
and plenty of feed of suitable kind and variety, and 
good dairymen, are the conditions most necessary for 
success. Pure-bred cows are by no means necessary. Most 
of tlie good, profitable herds of dairy cows in this country 

280 



DAIRYING 



28' 



are grades ; that is, crosses between native cattle and 
pure-bred cattle of dairy breeds. Some grade cattle have 
been crossed with pnre-l)re(ls for so many generations 
that they are 
practically pure. 
A^ery much of 
the dairy pro- 
d u c t o f t h e 
country is made 
from well-se- 
lected and well- 
cared-for native 
cows. 

The records 
of such herds are 
often excellent 
as CO m p a r e d 
with grade and 
pure herds. In 
this business 
good feeding and proper handling of the cows count for 
more than breeding. 

Dairying South and West. — People in the Southern 
States and the far Western States have not engaged 
extensively in dairying. The Southern people have been 
busy with cotton, tobacco, cane, and rice ; and it is said 
the ranchman of the plains will not milk a cow because 
he cannot do it on horseback. 

Milk for Home Use. — When only two or three cows are 
kept simply to get milk and butter for home use, perhaps 




Fig. 109. — Round Silo 



288 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTUKE 



tiie plan of taking ^Dart of the milk and letting the cilf 
have the rest is not bad. Milking in a small way is ant 




Fig. 110. — Cows of Dairy Breeds 
Jersey, above ; Holstein Dehorned, belovN- 



DAIRYING 289 

to be irregularly and more or less carelessly done. The 
calf does good, thorough milking, and tliat keeps the cow 
giving milk longer than if she were not properly milked. 
If the cow runs in the woods or in a large pasture, she 
will come home regularly to see her calf. 

Commercial Dairying. — People who produce dairy prod- 
ucts in a commercial way cannot afford the time necessary 
to rope off calves and to wait for them to ''bring the milk 
down." Neither can the dairyman afford to give the calf 
the richest milk, the " strippings," which is three times as 
rich as the first milk drawn. A commercial dairyman 
must wean his calves when they are a day or two old, 
and teach them to drink skimmed milk from a bucket. 
He must also teach them to eat corn meal worth one cent 
a pound instead of butter fat Avorth thirty cents a pound. 
He must drive up his cows regularly, feed them well, and 
milk them thoroughly. Many people in the South think 
their native cows would not give milk without suckling 
calves. If the calves are taken away young, nearly all 
the cows will give their milk, just as Jerseys do. 

Crude Methods. — People making butter for their own 
use only often have very crude ways of handling milk 
and making butter. The milk is set in pans, and the 
cream continues to rise till the milk clabbers. In sum- 
mer it clabbers perhaps before two-thirds of the cream 
rises. In fall, winter, and spring it can stand longer, 
and somewhat better results are obtained. If an attempt 
is made to churn all the milk, the necessary work is 
great; the temperature of milk will have to be so high 
that the butter will be beaten into a sort of soup, and 



290 



ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



it will be white and so mixed with buttermilk that it 
will not keep long. There is much of the butter 
fat left in the buttermilk under these circumstances. 
When cream is churned at a high temperature in sum- 
mer, or when heated too much in winter, the same sort 
of butter is made, and the losses are also great. With 

people who like fresh butter 
made in this way, and make 
all they need, this plan is not 
bad, especially if they use the 
skimmed milk and buttermilk 
for cooking and for drinking. 
Making Good Butter. — Good 
butter such as will keep well 
cau be made with any kind of 
churn, if only the cream is 
kept at 60 to 70 degrees, 
Fahrenheit, during the opera- 
tion ; that is, at about the tem- 
perature of fresh well water in 
the Gulf States. Churning 
must cease as soon as the butter appears in little par- 
ticles the -size of sorghum seed. These should be strained 
out, or separated from the milk in some way, and washed 
and worked enough to get rid of the excess of water and 
to mix the salt evenly through the product. Of course, in 
making butter in anything like a large way, a box or barrel 
churn becomes necessary, instead of the old dasher churn. 
Cream Separator. — The farmer who has four or five 
good cows and expects to sell butter will find that a hand- 




FiG. 111. — Cream Separator 



DAIRYING 291 

power cream separator is essential to the best profits. The 
separator gets practically all the cream from fresh, sweet 
milk. Tliis cream can be kept at a snitable temperature 
much easier than can milk when set for cream, and it will 
generall}' produce better butter. 

A dairyman can well afford to buy ice in summer when 
he handles only the cream. The fresh skimmed milk is 
much better than clabber to feed to calves. If a good 
cow produces $60.00 worth of butter a year when the 
milk is run through a separator, she would not likely 
make over 145.00 worth when the milk is set in the old 
way. Then the saving in labor, in value of skimmed milk, 
etc., may easily make a saving in profit for each cow of 
1^20 a year. The saving on two or three cows, tlien, 
may easily pay for a small separator. The same rules 
alread}- given for churning apply to churning on a large 
scale. Dairymen who make butter for sale easily learn 
suitable Avays of packing and presenting it to the trade 
in attractive form. 

Breed, not Feed, makes Rich Milk. — It is not true, as 
many people believe, that rich feed given a cow will 
produce richer milk than poor food d(^es. Rich feed and 
plenty of it will produce more milk, but it will be no 
richer tlian that given by the same cow wlien she is 
eating the poorest feed. Different types or breeds of 
cattle give milk differing in richness, and different indi- 
viduals of the same breed give milk differing in quality. 
Generally Jerseys and Guernseys give milk rich enough 
to make half a pound of butter from each gallon. Short- 
horns, Holsteins, and Ayrshires give milk requiring about 



292 ELEMENTS OF AGRlCrLTCRE 

three gallons or more to tlie pound of butter. ( 'ows give 
poorest milk soon after bringing calves, a time when they 
are giving most milk. As their calves grow older, they 
give less, but richer milk. Milk rich in butter fat is 
generally rich in casern, or cheesy matter, but not always 
so. Milk will make twice as much cheese as it will butter. 
Milk has about the same amount of casein as it has fat, 
and good cheese contains the casein and tlie fat. Clieese- 
making is more difficult in tlie South than butter-making. 



D 






o °°o ^ °o bo 

Fig. 112. — Pure and Impure Milk 
A. Fat globules B. Fat giobule.s mixed with germs 

Milk also has about as much sugar as it has fat, Ijut the 
sugar is not found in either butter or cheese. It re- 
mains in the whey, or watery part of the milk. New 
milk is about eighty-live to eighty-eight per cent water. 

Bacteria in Milk. — Milk sours and clabbers because 
bacteria get into it, and turn the milk sugar into an acid, 
called lactic acid. Vinegar is acetic acid. Try pouring 
some vinegar in sweet milk. If sweet milk is heated to 
about 160 degrees, most of the bacteria will be killed, and 
the milk will remain sweet longer. This mucli heat will 



DAIRYING 



298 




Fig. n: 



Box Churn 



not affect the taste of the milk. However, more bacteria 
soon get into it, multiply, and cause it to sour later. 
All vessels that milk is kept in should be scalded, and 
allowed to sun on the inside. Heat and sunlight kill 
germs. Dirty, poorly scalded milk vessels cause milk to 
sour quickly, because the 
germs are not killed, and 
a big crop of them starts 
to multiplying in the milk 
at once. 

Creameries or Factories. 
— In some communities 
men put up butter, cheese, 
or condensing factories, 
and buy milk. In other communities farmers unite in 
putting up creameries. All of them take their milk to 
the creamery, and after it is manufactured and the ex- 
})enses are paid, each one gets his share of tlie profits. 
Most communities in the South have thus far not pro- 
duced milk enough for large creameries. With a hand 
separator and some otlier simple apparatus, any farmer can 
make good butter and be independent of creameries. 

Visit a Good Dairy. — Suppose you visit some neighbor 
who is in the dairy business and get him to tell you and 
show you more about the business. Then if you will feed 
tlie cows better, and learn to make good butter and more 
of it than formerly, you can sell some and make a nice 
little sum of money. And if you will feed the skimmed 
milk not needed for other purposes to your pigs, with 
other foods, they will make money for you. 



294 ELEMENTS OF AGUICUL'i CUE 

Write your Experiment Station for bulletins on dairy- 
ing. It would require several books the size of this one 
to tell you all the useful things known about the subject. 

QUESTIONS 

What two lines of business are combined in dairying? What are 
the elements of success in dairying? What are the different products 
made from milk? Are pure cattle necessary for success? What are 
grade cattle? Are native cattle used successfully? In what sections 
are the people backward about tins line of business? How are cows 
and calves managed where only two or three cows are milked? 
What changes nmst be made where more cows are kept? How must 
dairy calves be raised? How do most people handle milk and make 
butter for their own use ? Would butter made in this way keep and 
sell well? Give the advantages of a cream separator. What extra 
profits can be made on each cow by means of a separator? Does rich 
feed make rich milk ? What influences richness of milk ? What 
breeds of cattle produce richest milk? Will a cow give riclier milk 
when her calf is young or when it is old? How much butter M'ill a 
gallon of milk make? How much cheese will a gallon of milk make? 
What causes milk to sour? What effect has vinegar on sweet milk? 
What sort of factories do people have for handling large amounts of 
milk ? Are creameries necessary for good results? 

Experiment. — Put some fresh milk in poorly cleaned pans, some 
more in thoroughly cleaned pans, and heat some more milk to 160 
degrees Fahrenheit, and observe how long each lot will keep before 
clabbering. Get a dairy thermometer and practice making some 
good butter at home. 



APPENDIX 

IMPORTANT ECONOMIC FAMILIES OF PLANTS 
By H. Ness, of Tkxas A. & M. College 

The whole vegetable kingdom is divided into numerous 
groups and sub-groups, and these are so related that they can 
be arranged in a continuous series from the lowest to the 
highest. Indeed, the relationship, as revealed by their struc- 
ture, is so close that in a great number of cases the neighboring 
groups pass imperceptibly into each other, their limiting char- 
acters being, so to speak, blended. 

The first and main division of the vegetable kingdom is di- 
vided into sub-kingdoms. The lower one, or the spore-bearers, 
reproduce themselves by spores, small one-celled particles, 
having no embryo, as, for example, the ferns, mosses, and 
numerous much lower plants. The second and higher are the 
seed-bearers, which reproduce themselves by a seed that c<3n- 
tains an embryo, or an infant plant, with enough food inclosed 
with it to nourish it until it is strong enough to procure its 
own nourishment. 

The seed-bearers are again divided into two groups : 1st, the 
naked seeded, or those which bear their seed inclosed between 
scales Avhich spread apart to drop the seeds when they are 
ripe, as in the pines ; 2d, those which have their seed in- 
closed in a pod (cotton, peas, etc.), or fleshy coat (tomatoes, 
grapes), or two coats, an outer fleshy, and an inner stony 
(peach, plum, etc.), or a close-fitting, fibrous coat (corn, wheat, 
oats, and other grasses). This second group is again divided 

295 



290 



APPENDIX 



into two groups according to tlie nature of the embryo : namely, 
those with the embryo having one leaf, or seed-leaf, as onion, 
grasses, grains, banana, etc. ; and those having two seed-leaves, 
as all the trees, cabbage, tomato, and most garden vegetables. 
The following scheme shows the relationship of these prin- 
cipal groups of plants, beginning with the lowest: — 

I. Spore-bearers. One-celled living particle having no embryo. 



II. Seed-bearers. -! 



l^- 



Naked seeded, seed inclosed between scales. 
Vessel seeded, seed inclosed in a vessel. 



One-leaved seeded, with wood and bast in united 
strings, siuTOunded by pith, parallel- veined 
leaves, and numerous roots of equal size from 
the lower joints of the stem ; as in the stems 
of corn, sorghum, and numerous grasses. 

Two-leaved seeded, with true bark surrounding 
the wood, and with the pith in the center, net- 
ted-veined leaves, and true taproot bearing 
lateral roots. Examples, cotton, oak trees, etc. 



From the two last groups, a, called the Monocotyledons, and 
h, called the Dicotyledons, come practically all the plants that 
furnish us with grains, vegetables, and fruits for our living, 
and fibers for our clothing. These groups are again subdivided 
into orders and families. We will now proceed to name a few of 
the most useful families and the most useful plants under each, 
beginning with the Monocotyledons, or the one-leaved seeded. 

The Grass Family. — To this belong, as the name indicates, 
all the true grasses, which also include Indian corn, wheat, 
rye, oats, barley, and rice, as well as sorghum and sugar cane. 
This is by far the most important of all families of plants, 
since it furnishes not only all breadstuffs for our own sus- 
tenance, but also grazing and fodder for our domestic ani- 
mals. From this family the Ja^^anese and Chinese obtain the 
bamboo, which grows in their countries to be 80 to 100 feet 



APPENDIX 297 

higli, and furnishes timber for most of their houses. Indian 
corn is thought to be a native of Mexico, C-entral, and South 
America, where its nearest relatives now grow wild, but tlie 
Indian corn, in the highly developed form in which we to-day 
possess it, has never been found wild by white man. Since 
the discovery of America, its cultivation has spread among all 
people living in the warmer parts of the temperate and tropical 
zones, even among the savages in the interior of Africa. 

Palm Family. — This family belongs to the tropics and warm, 
very often dry, countries of the temperate zones, as ]S"orth 
Africa and Arabia, whence we get the date fruit, which we 
have now commenced to cultivate in the southwestern portion 
of Texas, near the Gulf and the Mexican borders. From this 
family we also obtain the cocoanut, which grows throughout 
the Pacific islands, including the Philippines. 

Lily Family. — From this family we get our onions and gar- 
lics, which are natives of the Mediterranean countries, and 
have been cultivated from the earliest antiquity. 

The Asparagus Family gives us asparagus, a perennial with 
numerous horizontal root stocks, which, when on highly fertil- 
ized soil, send up early in the spring numerous fast-growing, 
fleshy shoots that are cut when about six inches high, and much 
prized as a vegetable diet. The plant, being a native of sea- 
coasts, requires in addition to other fertilizers a bountiful 
supply of salt. 

Banana Family. — The banana is a native of the moist regions 
of the tropics, but can also be grown in sheltered positions on 
the Gulf coast. It includes the abaca, or Manila hemp plant, 
which furnishes the best rope fiber in the world. 

DICOTYLEDONS 

Walnut Family. — The pecan, hickory, and English walnut 
come from this family. The English walnut is a native of 
Middle and Southern Europe, is successfully cultivated in 



298 APPENDIX 

California, and will grow well in Texas. It is a nut of the 
greatest commercial importance. The pecan is native of a 
large part of the United States, but produces the finest nuts 
in Texas, west of the meridian of Austin. Many cultivated 
varieties with thin-shelled, very large fruit are now coming 
into cultivation. 

Mulberry Family. — This family gives us a great number of 
useful trees. From our cultivated fig we have the well-known 
fruit, which is a hollow head bearing its numerous small flowers 
in the cavity. Other wild tropical figs give us rubber from 
the juice of their trunks. 

Goosefoot Family gives us the spinach which is grown in our 
gardens for greens and salad, the common beet, the sugar 
beet from which much of our sugar is made, and the huge 
mangel wurzel, raised for cattle food. 

Mustard Family. — To this family belong the greater number 
of our most important vegetables, such as mustard, radish, 
turnip, cress, and cabbage. As all of them are natives of 
cool, damp climates, they are grown by us as early spring or 
late fall crops. The cabbage is a native of the coast of France 
and other neighboring coasts, where it is yet found in a wild 
state, having the appearance of our kale. The original wild 
plant is called Brassica oleracea by the botanists, and has by 
"sporting" in cultivation given rise to the following forms 
which come true from seed: the common cabbage in all its 
forms, in which the stem and the leaves have been converted 
into an immense bud; the cmdijiower, in which the stem has 
been converted into a cockscomb-like body, called the "flower"; 
the Brussels sprout, that produces several heads the size of a 
man's fist as buds in the axils of the leaves along the stem ; 
ruta baga, in which the root has become turnip-like; the kohl- 
rabi, in which the short stem has become fleshy and is the 
edible part ; and finally, the kale and coUard. 

Mallow Family. — From this we get the cotton and the 
okra. 



APPENDIX 299 

Orange Family gives iis the oranges and the lemons. Kardy 
varieties of these fruits are now being cultivated in our coast 
country on a commercial scale, and still hardier ones are 
being developed by crossing the tender orange with the hardy 
trifoliata lemon. The resulting hybrid is called the Citrange, 
which produces a valuable fruit, and can be grown three to 
four hundred miles north of the present orange belt. 

Grape Family gives us all the grapes, which run into nu- 
merous forms both wild and in cultivation. The future grape 
region of Texas is the arid region west of the Pecos, where 
these plants will be much freer from diseases than in the 
moister regions. 

Rose Family. — This family used to include most of the 
orchard and garden fruits. It is now divided into: Pome 
Family, including the apple, pear, and quince ; Hose Family, 
including blackberry, dewberry, raspberry, and strawberry ; 
Prune Family, including peach, plum, cherry, and almond. 

Pea Family includes the peas, beans, and numerous forage 
plants having the pea-like flower, such as clovers and alfalfa. 

Cucumber Family includes cucumber and the melons, all con- 
stituting valuable commercial crops in our State. 

Parsley Family. — From this we obtain several vegetables 
more useful because of their flavor than the amount of nourish- 
ment that they furnish. The principal ones are carrot, pars- 
nip, parsley, caraway, and celery. The last is imported in 
large quantities from the North, but can be raised with ease 
in our ov/n State on rich, well-cultivated land. As young 
plants are slow in coming up and are at first delicate, they 
have to be started in seed beds. To insure good flavor and 
crispness, the stems of the leaves are covered by filling up the 
dirt around them as they grow. 

Nightshade Family. — This family gives us the Irish potato, 
the eggplant, tomato, the siveet j^^l^P^'^, Cayenne p)epper, and 
tobacco : all American plants and unknown before the discovery 
by Columbus. The Irish potato is the most widely used vege- 



800 APPENDIX 

table in the world. This and the tomato form the most im- 
2)ortant exportation of garden-truck crops from our State. 

Morning Glory Family gives us the sweet potato, which is 
a native of Jndiaj and was cultivated in very ancient times. 

Olive Family gives us the olive, famous for the oil, which is 
jjressed from the plum-like fruit. The olive is native of the 
Mediterranean countries, but is now being cultivated in South- 
western Texas, Arizona, and California. 



TREATMENT OF PLANT DISEASES 
By H. Ness 

Eemedies against plant diseases are among the things that 
belong to our own generation; perhaps because it is within 
recent times that such immense plantings have been made 
as to furnish abode for the parasites that produce the diseases 
on the higher plants. 

After trials with numerous materials for the purpose of dis- 
covering something that would act as poison to the parasitic 
fungi but be harmless to the host plant, there was at last 
found in the salts of copper, especially bluestoue or copper 
sidphate, a substance that would kill all the fungi with which 
it came in contact without injury to the host. The method of 
applying this was first started in France, in the district of Bor- 
deaux, as a remedy against downy mildew on grapes. But 
since most of the fungi live inside in the tissues of their hosts, 
very few diseases can be cured. The action of the bluestone 
is, therefore, rather that of a preventive than a cure. As a 
])reventive it is used in the well-known mixture called Bor- 
deaux mixture, consisting of four pounds of lime mixed with 
six pounds of bluestone, or copper sulphate, and dissolved in 
forty -five gallons of water. 

This mixture is applied to the plant with a spray pump, 
throwing the liquid into a steam-like spray and covering the 



APPENDIX :]()! 

entire plant, so that the spores of the fungi find no uncovered 
spot for lodging and germinating. It is claimed that the cop- 
per salt, instead of injuring the plant, actually stimulates its 
growth. Spraying must be done as often as the rain washes 
the coating off the plants. 

To Bordeaux mixture may be added small quantities of Lon- 
don purple or Paris green. 'I'hese substances contain arsenic, 
which will kill any insect that may eat the leaves or bark 
of the plant. Only small amounts of these materials can be 
added, as they are also poisonous to the plant itself and easily 
cause scorching of the leaves. Lime is used with bluestone 
to make the mixture stick to the plant. 

Another formula, not so much used, but recommended be- 
cause it sticks well to the plant, consists of a compound of cop- 
per and vinegar, called copper acetate, two to four ounces of 
this being dissolved in twenty -live gallons of water and applied 
as above. 

Numerous other salts of copper are used in these spray solu- 
tions; as, for example, copper carbonate, of which three ounces 
are used in connection with one pound of ammonium carbonate 
in forty to forty-five gallons of water. To all of these formulas 
very small quantities of arsenious salts may be added to kill 
any insects that may chance to feed on the plants. But in all 
cases it is the copper salt that kills the fungi or prevents their 
spores from getting a foothold. 

All these spray solutions containing copper salts are used 
for all contagious diseases affecting the parts of plants above 
the ground, because they are all due to fungi, which propagate 
themselves by similar spores carried by air or insects and lodge 
and germinate on the surface of the host plant before making 
their entrance into its tissues. 



302 APPENDIX 

FIGHTING INSECT ENEMIES — INSECT POISONS 

OR INSECTICIDES 

By C. E. Sanborn, Texas Experiment Station 

Below are given formula? for making seventeen of the most 
effective insect poisons known at this time : — 

I. Arsenate of Lead 

Acetate of lead 11 oz. 

Arsenate of soda 4 oz. 

Water 50 gals. 

II. Paris Greex Liquid Spray 

Paris green 1 lb. 

Lime (fresh unslacked) 2 to 3 lbs. 

\Vater 200 to 250 gals. 

III. Paris Greex Dry 

Mix with 25 parts air slacked lime ; used pure to kill insects 
crossing weed patches or feeding on other plants of no value. 

IV. Lime Sulphur Wash 

Lime (fresh unslacked) 20 lbs. 

Sulphur 16 lbs. 

Water .50 gals. 

V. Kerosexe Emulsion 

Hard soap -J- gal. 

AVater 1 gal. 

Kerosene 2 gals. 

a. For a 5 % solution, dilute with 37 gals, water. 

h. For a 15 % solution, dilute with 10^ gals, water. 

c. For a 20 % solution, dilute with 7 gals, water. 



APPENDIX 



303 



VI. Whale Oil Soap 

1 lb. to 2 srals. water. 



YII. For a Winter Spray for Evergreens 

Eesin, pulverized 

Caustic soda, granulated, 98 % 

Fish oil 

Water for final bulk ...... 



20 lbs. 

4^ lbs. 

3 pts. 



150 gals. 



VIII. For a Stivimer Spray 

1 qt. flowers of sulphur dissolved by boiling with 10 lbs. 
potash soap in 15 gals, of water. To use, dilute with 35 
gals, of water. 

IX. Bordeaux jNIixtltre 

If this spra}^ is being used where biting insects are injurious, 



its purpose may be doubled 


by adding the 


arsen 


ical as given : — 


Copper sulphate 

Lime (fresh unslacked ) 

W^ater 

Acetate of lead . 

Arsenate of soda 












5 lbs. 

9 lbs. 

50 gals. 

11 oz. 

4 oz. 



X. Carbon Bisulphide 

2 to 4 lbs. to 1000 cu. ft. of space. Set in vessels and allow 
to evaporate. Gas will sink through grain and smother weevils. 



XI. Before Insects appear in the Spring 

Trees should be bandaged from a few inches below surface 
of soil to two feet above with newspapers or other convenient 
material. Remove and burn bandages after hibernation of 
insects. 



304 APPENDIX 

XII. Inject kerosene into the tunnels. 

XIII. Kill larvie in tunnel with a wire or in some cases cut 
the larvae out. 

XIV. a. After liarvest destroy its food plants and allow no 
hibernating places to exist except as traps for burning. 

b. Control by infecting with parasites or contagious diseases. 

c. Destroy infested fruit. 

d. Cultivate the soil two or three inches in depth. 

XV. Sulphur as a Dry Spray 
Apply with a dust sprayer or shake it through a canvas bag. 

XVI. POISONKI) I'ait 

Paris green or white arsenic . . . . . 4 oz. 

P,ran 10 lbs. 

Molasses or thick sugar-water 1 i>int 

AVater, enough to make a soft dough. 

XVII. Spray premises or dip animal in two per cent solu- 
tion of zenolium. 

LIST OF HARMFUL INSECTS AND REMEDIES 

Following is a list of the worst insect pests, and the best 
means now known of fighting them. The insecticides are 
referred to by numbers from I up to XVII, given above. 

Angular winged katydid {MicroceiHnim retii)ervis, Burm.). 
I, II, III, or IX. 

Anguniois grain moth {Sitotroga cerealella, L.). X. 

Ants (different species). X (pour in their nests). 

Apple curculio (Anthonomus gradrigihhus, Say). I or II. 

Apple tree aphis (different green species). V, h, immediately 
before leaves fall. 

Army worms (Spring) = Leucaniauni panda, Haw. ; (Fall) = 
Laphygriia frugiperda, A. & S. III. 



APPENDIX 305 

Bag worm (Thyridopteryx sppJ). Hand pick bags. 

Boll worm {Heliothis obsoleta, Fab.). Fall and winter plowing. 

Bean and pea weevils. X. 
"Bed bug (Klinophllos lectularia, L.). Spray with gasoline. 

Blister beetles (different species). Ill, or spray colonies 
with gasoline. 

Blister beetles of plum {Pemphopoea Texana, Lee). Destroy 
mechanically. 

Cabbage aphis {Aphis bntssiccp, L.). V, a or b, VI. 

Cabbage maggot {Pegomyia brassira, Bouche). Apply to- 
bacco dust as a preventive. 

Cabbage worm (Pontia rapte, L.). I, II, or III. ' 

Chicken lice and mites. Spray premises with zenoliiim and 
apply kerosene to roosts; x>i*<^^'ide dust baths for fowls. 

Chinch bug {Blissus lemopterus, Say). XIV, a or b. 

Citrus white fly (Aleyrodes citri, Biley & Howard). VII or 
VIII. 

Codling moth (Carpocapsa pomonella, L.). II. 

Colorado potato beetle {Lepinotarsa decem-Uneatcu Say.). I 
or III. 

Corn ear-worm {Ileh'ofhus obsoleta, Fab.). Fall or winter 
plowing. 

Cut worms (many species). XA^I. 

False chinch bug (Nyslas angxstatiis, Uhl.). V, a or b. 

Flat headed apple tree borer {Chrysobothris femorata, Fab.). 
XIII. 

Fleas (different species). Remove all dust and rubbish; 
clean floors and sprinkle with kerosene : keep out dogs and cats : 
scatter pyrethrmn powder under carpets and in kennels. 

Glover's scale {Lepidosaphes gloverii, Pack.). VII or VIII. 

Grain beetles (different species). X. 

Grasshoppers (different species). I, II, or III. 

Green bug (Toxoptera graminum, Bond.). See page 155. 

Harlequin cabbage bug (Murganfia histrionica, Hahn). VI 
or Y,b. 

X 



306 APPEXDrx 

Hemispherical scale {Lecaninni hemispheric ton, Targ.). YII 
or VIII. 

Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor, 8a j.). XV, «,, and late 
sowing of wheat. 

May beetles (Lachnosternci, several species). I, also pasture 
infested grass land with hogs. 

Melon aphis (Aphis gossypii, (ilov.). XV and V, a. 

Mexican cotton boll weevil {A. grattdis, Boh.). See page 
132. 

Mosquitoes (different species). Destroy larvte by pouring 
kerosene on water where eggs or larvtC are. Cover cisterns, 
empty troughs, cans, and useless vessels of all kinds. Watch 
for stagnant pools of water and drain them. Put fish in per- 
manent pools and tanks. 

Oyster shell bark louse of the apple (Lepidoseqihes pomorum, 
Bouche). IV. 

Peach scale (Aidacasjyis pentagona, Targ.). IV. 

Peach tree borers (Sanninoidea e.vitiosa, 8ay, and Synanthedon 
p)ictipes, Say). XII, XIV. 

Plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar, Hbst.). Jar trees 
in early morning, collect and destroy beetles. 

Purple scale {Lepidosaphes citricola. Pack.). VII, VIII, 
winter spray on deciduous trees, IV. 

Red spiders or mites (different species). XVI, XVII. 

Eound headed apple tree borer {Saperda Candida, Fab.). 
XIII, XIV, XII. 

San Jose scale (Asj^idiotus perniciosus, Comst.). IV. 

Scurfy scale (Chisonasj^is furfara, P.). IV. 

Soft scale (Lecanium hesperidiun, L.). 

Southern plum aphis (Aphis setaria', Thos.). V, b, imme- 
diately before leaves fall or before buds open and after eggs 
hatch. 

Striped cucumber beetle (Diahrotica vittata. Fab.). 

Sweet potato weevil (Cylas formicarus, Fab.). X. 

Tent caterpillar. The American (Midacosouia Americana, 



APPENDIX 307 

Fab.). When tents first appear cut off branches to which they 
are attached and burn. 

Tomato worm (Phlegethrmtius sexto, L.). Hand pick and 
destroy. 

Twig girdler (Oncideres sp.?). Burn amputated twigs. 

Woolly aphis {Sddzoneura lanigera, Hausm.). V, b. 

Footnote. Following are the names, with their abbreviations, as 
used after the technical names of insects herein treated : A. & S., Abbott 
& Smith; Boh., Boheman ; Bouche, Bouche ; Burm., Burmeister ; 
Comst., Comstock ; F., Fitch; Fab., Fabricius ; Glov., Glover ; Harr., 
Harris; Hausm., Hausm ann ; Halin, Hahn ; Haw., Haworth ; Hbst., 
Herbst ; Howard, Howard ; Lee, Lecnnte ; L., Liiuiffius; Pack., Packard ; 
Biley, Riley; Kond., liondaiii; Say, Say; Targ., Targoni ; Thos., 
Thomas ; Uhl., Uhler ; Walsh, Walsh. 



308 



APPENDIX 



JUDGING STOCK — TEXAS A. & M. COLLEGE 



Draft House — Scale ok Points — For Geldino 



1. Age ......... 

General Appearance : 

2. Height 

3. Weight, over 1500 lbs. . . . score according to age 

4. Form, broad, massive, low set, proportioned 

5. Quality, bone clean, yet indicating sufficient substance 

tendons distinct, skin and hair fine 

6. Temperament, energetic, good disposition . 

Head and Neck: 

7. Head, lean, medium size 

8. Muzzle, fine ; nostrils large ; lips thin, even . 

9. Eyes, full, bright, clear, large 

10. Forehead, broad, full 

11. Ears, medium size, well carried . . • . . 

12. Neck, muscled ; crest high ; throatlatch fine; windpipe 

large 

Forequarters : 

13. Shoulders, sloping, smooth, snug, extending into back 

14. Arm, short, thrown forward 

15. Forearm, heavily muscled, long, wide .... 

16. Knees, wide, clean cut, straight, deep, strongly sup- 

ported .......... 

17. Cannons, short, lean, wide ; sinews large, set back 

18. Fetlocks, wide, straight, strong . . 

19. Pasterns, sloping, lengthy, strong 

20. Feet, large, even size, straight; horn dense, dark 

color ; sole concave ; bars strong ; frog large, elastic ; 
heel wide, high, one-half length of toe ... 

21. Legs, viewed in front, a perpendicular line from the 

point of the shoulder should fall upon the center of the 
knee, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side, a per- 
pendicular line dropping from the center of the elbow 
joint should fall upon the center of the knee and pas- 
tern joints and back of hoof 

Total 



APPENDIX 
JUDGING S1X)CK — Continued 



809 





Perfect 


Dkakt Horre — Scale of Points — For Geldin<; 


Score 


I>i{Ou<;nT FoKWAKi) ........ 


47 


Body: 




22. Chest, deep, wide, low, large girth .... 


2 


2;}. EiBs, long, close, sprung 


2 


24. Back, straight, short, broad 


2 


25. Loin, wide, sliort, thick, straight 


2 


20. Underline, flank low . 


1 


Hindquarters : 




27. Hips, smooth, wide 


2 


28. Crolp, long, wide, muscular 


2 


29. Tail, attached high, well carried ..... 


1 


oO. Thighs, muscular ........ 


2 


31. Quarters, deep, heavily muscled 


2 


32. Gaskins or Lower Thighs, wide, muscled . 


2 


38. Hocks, clean cut, wide, straight 


8 


34. Cannons, short, wide ; sinews large, set hack 


2 


35. Fetlocks, wide, straight, strong 


1 


36. Pasterns, sloping, strong, lengthy .... 


2 


37. Feet, large, even size, straight; horn dense, dark color ; 




sole concave ; bars strong ; frog large, elastic ; heel 




wide, high, one-half length of toe .... 


6 


38. Legs, viewed from behind, a perpendicular line from the 




point of the buttock should fall upon the center of the 




hock, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side, a 




perpendicular line from the hip joint should fall upon 




the center of the foot and divide the gaskin in the 




middle ; and a perpendicular line from the point of the 




buttock should run parallel with the line of the cannon 


4 


Action : 




39. Walk, smooth, quick, long, balanced .... 


6 


40. Trot, rapid, straight, regular 


4 


Total 


100 



310 



APPENDIX 
JUDGING STOCK — Confmued 



Light Horses — Scat.e of Points — For Gei.dini 



1. Age . • 

General Appearance : 

2. Weight ......... 

3. Height 

4. Form, symmetrical, smooth, stylish 

5. Quality, bone clean, fine, yet indicating sufficient suli 

stance; tendons defined ; hair and skin fine 

6. Temperament, active, good disposition . 

Head and Neck : 

7. Head, lean, straight . . . 

8. Muzzle, fine ; nostrils large ; lips thin, even . 

9. Eves, full, bright, clear, large .... 

10. Forehead, broad, full 

11. Ears, medium size, pointed, well carried, and not fa 

apart 

12. Neck, muscled ; crest high ; throatlatch fine; windpipe 

large 

Forequarters : 

18. Shoulders, long, smooth with nmscle, oblique, extending 
into back and muscled at withers .... 

14. Arm, short, thrown forward 

15. Forearm, muscled, long, wide 

16. Knees, clean, wide, straight, deep, strongly supported 

17. Cannons, short, wide ; sinews large, set back 

18. Fetlocks, wide, straight 

19. Pasterns, strong; angle with ground, 45 degrees . 

20. Feet medium, even size, straight ; horn dense ; frog 

large, elastic ; bars strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, high 

21. Legs, viewed in front, a perpendicular line from the 

point of the .shoulder should fall upon the center of the 
knee, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side, a per- 
pendicular line dropping from the center of the elbow 
joint should fall upon the center of the knee and pas- 
tern joints and back of hoof ..... 



Tot A L 



APPENDIX 
JUDGING STOC K — Continuerl 



311 



I.HiiiT House — Sc.vi.k or Points — For Gelding 

Brought Forward ...... 

Body : 

22. Chest, deep, low, large girth .... 

23. Ribs, long, sprung, close ... 

24. Back, straight, short, broad, niusfled 

25. Loin, wide, short, thick 

26. Underline, long, flank let down . 

Hindquarters : 

27. Hips, smooth, wide, level .... 

28. Croup, long, wide, muscular .... 

29. Tail, attached high, well carried . 

30. Thighs, long, muscular, spread, open angled . 

31. Quarters, heavily muscled, deep . 

32. Gaskins or Lower Thighs, long, wide, muscular 

33. Hocks, clearly defined, wide, straight . 

34. Cannons, short, wide ; sinews large, set back 

35. Fetlocks, wide, straight .... 

36. Pasterns, strong, sloping .... 

37. Feet, medium, even size, straiglit ; horn dense ; frog 

large ; elastic ; bars strong ; sole concave ; heel wide, 
high 

38. Legs, viewed from behind, a perpendicular line from the 

point of the buttock should fall upon the center of the 
hock, cannon, pastern, and foot. From the side, a 
perpendicular line from the hip joint should fall upon 
the center of the foot and divide the gaskin in the 
middle ; and a perpendicular line from the point of 
the buttock should run parallel with the line of the 
cannon 

Action : 

39. Walk, elastic, quick, balanced 

40. Trot, rapid, straight, regular, high . . . . 



Total 



312 



APrEXDIX 



JUDGING Sl'OCK — Continued 



]>EKi'' Stkeh — Scale of Point.* 



2. 



3. 



4. 



low 



General Appearance : 
1. Weight, score according to age .... 

Form, straight top line and underline ; deep, broad, 
set, stylish 

Qua LIT V, hair fine ; skin i)liable ; dense, clean bone ; body 
covering to be uniform, of a mellow touch, yet suffi- 
ciently firm to indicate a large proportion of muscle 

Condition, development of flesh and fat; fat indicated by 
spinal covering, rib covering, fullness of flank, purse and 
tongue root 

Head and Neck: 

5. Muzzle, broad ; mouth large ; jaw wide ; nostrils large . 

6. Eyes, large, clear, placid 

7. Face, short, quiet expression 

8. Forehead, broad, full ....... 

Ears, medium size, fine texture ...... 

Horns, fine texture, oval, medium size .... 

Nkck, thick, short, throat clean ..... 



9. 
10. 
11. 



Forequarters : 

V2. Smoulder Vein, full . . . . 

13. Shoulder, covered with flesh, compact on top, smooth 

14. Brisket, advanced, breast wide 

15. Dewlap, skin not too loose, and drooping 

16. Legs, straight, short ; arm full ; shank tine, smooth . 

Body: 

17. Chest, full, deep, wide ; girth large ; crops full 

18. KiBS, long, arched, thickly fleshed 

19. Back, broad, straight, smooth, even 

20. Loin, thick, broad 

21. Flank, full, even with underline . . . ' . 

Hindquarters : 

22. Hips, smoothly covered, distance apart in proportion with 

other parts ......... 



Total 



APPENDIX 
JUDGING STOCK — Continue^/ 



313 



Beek Steer — Soai.k ok Points 


Perfect 
Score 


Bkouoht Fokwari) 


80 


Hindquarters — Cont. : 




2o. Ulmp, loiio;. wide, even, tail head smooth, not patchy 


2 


24. Pin Bonks, not prominent, far apart 


1 


25. Thighs, full, deep, wide 


2 


20. Twist, deep, phimp 


2 


27. Purse, full, indicating fleshiness 


2 


28. Leos, straight, short ; shank fine, smooth .... 


- 


Total 


100 



Scale of Points — Fob Dairy Cow 


Perfect 

Score 


General Appearance : 

1. Weight 

2. Form, inclined to he wedge-shaped 

I). Quality, hair fine, soft ; skin, mellow, loose, medium 

thickness, secretion yellow ; hone, clean, fine 

4. Condition, lean, though vigorous appearance when in milk 
Head and Neck : 

5. Muzzle, clean cut ; mouth large ; nostrils large 

6. Eyes, large, bright, full, mild 

7. Face, lean, long, quiet expression 

8. Forehead, broad 

0. Ears, medium size, yellow inside, fine texture . 

10. Horns, fine, texture waxy 

11. Neck, fine, medium length ; throat clean, light dewlap . 
Forequarters : 

12. Withers, lean, thin 

18. Shoulders, light, oblique 

14. Legs, straight, short ; shank fine 



G 
6- 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 _ 

1 

1 
2 
2 


Total 


80 



;14 



APPENDIX 
JUDGING >^TOCK—ron(inued 



Scale of Points — For Dairy Cow 



I'kkkkct 

S<oni-: 



Brought Fokwaud 



Body: 

15. Chest, deep, low ; girth large with full fore flank 

Barrel, ribs broad, long, wide apart, largj stomach 

Back, lean, straight, open jointed 

Loin, broad 

Navel, large 

Hindquarters : 

Hips, far apart, level 

KuMP, long, wide 

Pin Bones or Thurls, high, wide apart . 

Tail, long, slim, fine hair in switch . 

Thighs, thin, long 

Escutcheon, spreading over thighs, extending high and 

wide ; large thigh ovals 

26. Udder, long, attached high and full behind, extending 
far in front and full, flexible ; quarters even and free 
from fleshiness 

Teats, large, evenly placed 

^Mammary Veins, large, long, tortuous, branched with 
double extension ; large and numerous milk wells 
29. Legs, straight, short ; shank flne 



27. 

28. 



Total 



10 
10 

9, 



20 



100 



STOCK DISEASES AXD EEMEDIES 
By Dr.. II. P. Marstkli.ah, Texas A. & M. College 

THE HORSE 

Chronic Indigestion. — The three most common causes of 
chronic indigestion are improper food and water, bad teeth, 
and the presence of worms in the intestines. 

Food and Water. — Animals when given faulty food or water 
do not " do well," have an unthrifty hair coat, sweat easily, 
and cannot stand hard work. In such cases it is well to 
change the feed supply. 

Bad Teeth. — Horses have bad teeth. Many of the common 
defects of teeth can be detected by the ordinary observer, if 
he will take the trouble to open the animal's mouth and inves- 
tigate. Common defects are irregular teeth, decayed teeth, 
teeth with sharp edges. Very often a few dollars spent in 
having the teeth attended to Avill prolong the animal's life and 
usefulness. 

Worms. — Young horses often have worms in the intestines 
that sap their vitality. The symptoms are the same as those 
of poor food and water. A very safe and efficient remed}^ for 
this trouble is a drench made of two ounces of turj^eutiue and 
one pint of linseed oil. 

Acute Indigestion: Colic. — If any of the causes of chronic 
indigestion are severe and continued, they lead to colic, the 
symptoms of which are those of chronic indigestion augmented. 
Horses with colic show pain by being restless, getting up and 
down, looking around at side and pawing and stamping. An 
ounce of chloral hydrate in one pint of water often gives relief 
without causing any of the deleterious effects of many other 
remedies. 

315 



3U) APPENDIX 

Bad Eyes, — The most common disease of the eyes of horses 
is ''moon blindness." The first attack is mistaken very often 
for a slight injury. But the animal has from time to time, at 
more or less regular periods, subsequent attacks, each being 
more severe and leaving more permanent effects. This is an 
incurable trouble and results in blindness. 

Beards of grains and chaff get in the eyes of animals and 
will cause serious injuries if not removed. A fairly satisfac- 
tory examination can be made by turning the lids outward 
one at a time. This will in many cases bring to view the 
foreign body. 

Feet. — The old saying, " no foot, no horse," is as true as 
ever. Bad feet are often due to neglect of the hoofs when 
the animal was young. If the owner would take the trouble 
to trim the hoofs this could be avoided. If this is not done 
they grow out of shape, forcing the animal to throw too much 
of his weight on some one joint, tendon, or ligament, with the 
result that it becomes inflamed and is permanently injured. 

Nail Prick. — Lameness due to this common trouble is often 
not discovered at all by the layman. The most prominent 
symptoms besides lameness are swelling of the leg, extending 
from below upwards, loss of appetite, and fever. A careful 
examination of the foot will bring to view the foreign body 
that is causing the trouble. In any case of lameness, it is icell 
to examine the foot thoroughly. 

Treatment. — Remove cause of trouble, enlarge opening and 
fill with carbolic acid or hydrogen peroxide. Keep animal in 
clean, dry place until it goes sound. 

Lung Fever. — Lung fever is characterized by hurried respira- 
tion, high temperature (105°-107° F.), nasal discharge of 
rusty color, "stary " eyes, and loss of appetite. The death rate 
in this disease is high. Death results in about six or seven 
days. 

Treatment. — There are no specific remedies, and treatment 
should not be undertaken by laymen. 



APPENDIX 317 

Tetanus (Lockjaw). — This is a disease from which all 
domestic animals may suffer, and most commonly seen in the 
horse. It is due to a germ which cannot live in the presence 
of oxygen. It gains entrance to the animal body througli 
punctured wounds or through those in which dirt is ground 
into the flesh. The symptoms are a protrusion of the haw 
from the inner angle of the eye over the ball ; straddling gait, 
marked muscular rigidity ; the tail is carried out, ears are 
pricked, and nostrils are distended. All of these symptoms 
become more marked if the animal is irritated in any way. 

Treatment. — Keep animal (juiet and give soft feed. As a 
preventive in suspicious wounds, Tetanus antitoxin should 
be given. This has only a preventive and not a curative 
power. 

Blind Staggers. — Many theories are prevalent in regard to 
the cause of the epizootic form of this disease. One of the 
most popular is that it is due to some mold or fungus. Ex- 
periments carried out at the Texas Experiment Station tend to 
disprove this idea. To the careful observer, from all data 
available at present, it seems to be due to labor diet while 
resting, for when work stock are used regularly in the spring 
it disappears. 

Symptoms. — The animal will not lead, and refuses to come 
out of stable. When eating it will stop suddenly with some 
food protruding from the mouth, remain this way for some time 
and then start to eat again. Many do not walk straight, and 
stand with their feet crossed. Some are so badly affected that 
they do not show any regard for obstacles, and will walk, 
or try to walk, through fences, stall partitions, etc. A large 
per cent of animals that have this disease die 5 some make a 
partial recovery, and are termed " dummies." 

Prevention. — Reduce feed when animal is not working. 
Give plenty of roughage and exercise. 

Glanders. — This is an insidious disease quite hard to diag- 
nose in chronic cases without the use of mallein, a diagnostic 



318 APPENDIX 

agent. Acute cases have blood-stained nasal discharge, star- 
shaped scars in nose, enlargement of glands in the hollow 
between the jaw bones, and an unthrifty condition. In the 
cutaneous form, or farcy, chronic ulcers are formed on the skin. 

Treatment. — Incurable. It is unlawful to keep animals 
affected in this way. 

Wounds. — In none of the ailments of animals is cleanliness 
so essential as in wound treatments. If the best results are to 
be obtained, wounds must be kept clean and unirritaied. If 
these conditions are provided, most wounds will heal in a 
reasonable time, but it is often impossible to prevent the 
entrance of dirt or pus. To remove these first wash with a 
two per cent solution of baking soda, then a two to five per 
cent of carbolic acid, kresol, or chloro-naphtholeum, and then 
sift over the wounds a powder consisting of one part camphor, 
one part alum, and four parts boracic acid. 

CATTLE 

Diseases of the digestive organs of cattle are very common, 
due to the fact that these organs are taxed to their limit in 
both milk and beef production. The organs often are only 
overworked and will soon return to their normal conditions if 
given a rest for a few days. Some of the most common forms 
of indigestion are : — 

Bloat, or hoven, due to a distension of the paunch with gas, 
which is caused by fermentation of food. 

Treatment. — Ordinarily, baking jKjvvder given in doses of four 
spoonfuls will often relieve the condition. In some cases it is 
necessary to puncture the hollow of the flank on the left side, 
but this had best be done only by those who have had 
experience. 

Scours. — In the South, dairymen have considerable trouble 
with calf scours. This is caused by feeding milk Avhich has 
been acted upon by certain bacteria, which are very common 



APPENDIX 819 

and active in a warm climate. By putting formalin in the 
niiJk (one part formalin to 5000 parts milk) this trouble can 
be overcome with no serious injury to the stock. Older cattle 
sometimes have diarrhea, but this can generally be overcome 
by regulating the diet. 

Constipation. — When cattle run on dry pastures for some 
time they often become constipated, and if they are not relieved, 
inflammation and even death will be the result. This can be 
relieved by giving one pound of epsom salts and one ounce of 
ginger in one quart of rain water. 

Texas Fever. — The symptoms of this disease are a yellow 
color of white of eye, red urine, rapid emaciation, and the 
presence of many ticks. 

As cattle that are very poor cannot withstand this disease, 
it is well, if practicable, to feed them. Reduce ticks by dip- 
ping and rotation of pasture. 

Black Leg. — Symptoms. Lameness in one leg, more often 
hind leg, accompanied by swelling which will crackle when 
the hand is rubbed over it, high temperature, rapid respiration, 
muscular tremors in later stage. 

This is an incurable disease when once developed. It can 
be prevented by vaccination. 

Anthrax (Charbon). — While this disease has been reported 
more often in cattle and sheep, all domestic animals and even 
man may contract it. 

The sudden appearance, the short duration of the disease, 
the number of animals affected, cause one to detect the disease 
early in the outbreak. Death is so sudden that in many cases 
the clinical symptoms are not very pronounced. However, if 
the disease runs for several days, swellings appear on the 
various parts of the body, neck, brisket, and abdomen. These 
swellings are painful, hot, and hard. If incised, they appear 
to consist of a gelatin-like material. 

Treatment. — Incurable; outbreaks are, however, said to be 
controlled bv vaccination. 



820 APPENDIX 

Actinomycosis (Lumpy Jaw). — This disease is characterized 
generally by enlargement in the region of the lower jaw. 
Swelling at first is hard and painful and gradually increases 
in size. Later it breaks in several different places, discharg- 
ing pus with yellow grain-like particles. The disease often 
attacks the bone itself, loosening the teeth and making it 
impossible for the animal to eat. 

Seventy per cent of the cases can be cured if treatment is 
begun early. 

Treatment. — Give two drachms of potassium iodide daily for 
ten days ; discontinue and repeat in ten days. If necessary, 
treat a third time. Human beings may contract this disease 
by eating meat of infected animals. 

Milk Fever. — This disease is associated with calving, and is 
characterized by unconsciousness, manifesting itself first by 
unsteady gait and crooked neck. Then the animal falls down 
and may lie stretched out or with head curled around to one 
side. Pulse and respiration are normal. 

This disease is very successfully treated by inflating the 
udder with carbolized air or oxygen. Unless the person that 
treats the animal has some knowledge of antisepsis he will 
infect the udder and the cow will develop garget. 

Garget. — The most common disease of the udder is garget, 
which is an infection of one or more quarters of the udder. It 
is caused by the entrance of germs. Pus forms and the milk 
becomes stringy. 

This is a very unsatisfactory disease to treat; even when 
relieved, it shows a tendency to return. The quarters 
affected may be irrigated with a solution consisting of one 
part permanganate of potash to four or five hundred parts 
water. 

Swelling or Inflammation of Udder. — When the cow is fresh, 
swelling can be controlled by. giving her a pound of salts 
(epsom) followed by one drachm of fluid extract of belladona 
morninar and evening until relieved. 



APPENDIX 3-21 

Bathe the cow's udder with a liniment consisting of four 
parts lead water and one part laudanum. 

DOGS 

Rabies (Madness). — Perhaps there is no disease of domestic 
animals that is so much dreaded and feared by people as 
rabies, or "mad dog." This is largely due to ignorance and 
the fact that there are many misleading and ungrounded ideas 
in regard to it, especially the length of time it takes the disease 
to develop. All data and experiments show that the period of 
incubation varies from ten to sixty days. Some of the most 
prominent symptoms are change of voice, change of disposition, 
abnormal appetite (in post mortem, sticks, old leather, dirt, etc. 
jire often found in the stomach), rapid emaciation, paralysis, and 
death. In the furious form the animal shows tendency to bite, 
wdiile in the dumb form, which is the most common, the animal 
soon becomes paralyzed and shows no tendency to bite. 

The conservative thing to do is to quarantine suspicious cases 
securely. This will give opportunity to observe the animal. 
If it has rabies it usually dies in the course of ten days. If 
the animal does not die within this time, it is probably not af- 
fected with rabies, and the knowledge of this fact will always 
give persons that may have been bitten a great content of mind. 
As one man remarked who had had some practical experience 
with rabies, '•' I would not take one thousand dollars for a dog 
that had bitten me. I would keep him and see for myself 
if he developed the disease." 

Persons that have been bitten by a rabid animal should take 
Pasteur treatment immediately. 



GLOSSARY 



Abdomen. The belly of an animal or hindmost part of an insect. 

Acid. A sour chemical compound. 

Acid phosphate. A fertilizing material made by mixing sulphuric 

acid with ground bone or ground phosphate rock. 
Alkali land. Land having salts hurtful to crops. 
Aluminum. A white metal in clay, often separated and used in the 

arts. 
Ammonia. A compound of nitrogen and hydrogen. 
Ammonium Carbonate. A compound of ammonia and carbonic acid 

gas. 
Analyze. To separate into elements and find the composition of. 
Annual Plant. A plant that dies root and top the first year of its life. 
Antagonistic. Opposed. 

Anthrax. An animal disease, also called charbon. 
Available. Capable of being used. 

B 

Biennial Plant. A plant liAdng two years and making seed the second 

year. 
Bisulphide of Carbon. A compound of carbon and sulphur called 

'• high-life," used to kill weevils in grain. 
Blight. A withering and drying up of plant leaves. 
Bluestone. A compound of copper and sulphuric acid. 
Bordeaux Mixture. A mixture of bluestone, lime, and water for 

spraying. 
Botany. A science describing plants. 



Calcareous. Composed largely of calcium, or lime. 

Calcium. The metal which, united with oxygen, makes Hme. 

Cannon. The bone of the lower leg of the horse. 

Capillary. Composed of little tubes or pores. 

Carabao. Filipino name for the water buffalo. 

Carbon. The main constituent of coal, charcoal, diamonds, and 

wood. 
Carcass. The dead body of an animal. 
Casein. The part of the soHds of milk containing nitrogen, and the 

main part of cheese. 
Caterpillar. A young insect. 

823 



324 GLOSSARY 

Chemical Change. A very complete change caused by elements 

uniting or separating from each other. 
Chlorine. A gas not found pure in nature, but which when united 

with the metal sodium forms salt. 
Citrus Fruits. Acid fruits like oranges, lemons, and grape fruits. 
Commercial Fertilizer. A fertilizer bought and sold and shipped. 
Complete Fertilizer. A fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphoric 

acid, and potash. 
Compound. A substance made up of two or more elements. 
Concentrated. Strong or condensed. 
Concentrates. Rich feeds like meal, oil cakes, or grains. 
Contagious. Liable to spread. 

Copper Acetate. A compound of copper and vinegar. 
Cretaceous. Consisting of chalk, or lime rock. 

Crossing. Mixing two varieties of plants or two breeds of animals. 
Croup. Top of a horse's hips. 
Crystallize. To form crystals, or grains, like sugar. 



Dicotyledons. Plants having two seed leaves. 

Disseminated. Scattered ab )ut. 

Dodder. A parasite, growing on alfalfa and other plants. 

Dormant. Sleeping. 

Dual-purpose. For two purposes. 



Element. The simplest form of matter, as iron or gold. 
Ensilage. Green feed kept in a silo, or air-tight room or pit. 
Escutcheon. The back part of udder and thighs of milk cows, where 

the hair turns up instead of down. 
Evaporate. To pass off in the air. 
Expand. To grow larger. 

F 

Ferment. To sour, or change on account of ferments, or bacteria. 

Fertility. Being fertile or fruitful. 

Fertilizing Elements. Phosphoric acid, nitrogen, and potash. 

Floats. Ground phosphate rock. 

Formalin. A substance used to kill spores or fungi. 

Formula. A prescription or direction for making mixtures. 

Fungi. Little plants that can be seen only with a microscope. 

Fungicide. Something to kill fungi. 

Fungous Diseases. Diseases caused by fungi. 

G 

Geology. The science which describes the rocks of the earth and the 

changes they have gone through. 
Germinate. To sprout. 
Germs. Small living beings that can be seen only with a microscope. 



GLOSSARY 325 

Glacier. A niovino; body of ice. 

Glucose. A kind of sugar that will not form grains, or crystals. 

Gypsura. Land-plaster, a compound of lime and sulphuric acid. 

H 

Hibernate. To live over winter. 

Hock. Part of the hind leg of a horse. 

Host. Plant another plant or insect feeds on. 

Humid. Having natural supply of water. 

Humus. The partly rotted leaves, roots, and stems of plants existing 

in the soil. 
Hybridizing, The mixing or crossing of plants or animals of different 

species. 
Hydrogen. The lightest gas known, and one of the elements of 

water. 
Hygroscopic. A term used to describe the water existing in substances 

supposed to be dry. 

I 

Infected. A plant or animal is infected when germs or spores of dis- 
ease enter it. 

Inoculation. The act of inoculating or vaccinating with germs. 

Insect. An animal having six legs and having its body divided into 
three parts. 

Insecticide. Insect poisons. 

Inverted. Changed, as from crystal sugar to sticky, gummy sugar. 

Irrigation. Artificially supplying water to land. 

Isolate. To separate from others. 

K 

Kerosene Emulsion. A spraying mixture of soap, water, and kerosene 
oil. 



Lactic Acid. Acid formed from milk sugar. 

Larva. The grub of insects. 

Layering. Making limbs of plants take root, and then transplanting. 

Legumes. Plants bearing pods. 

Lespedeza. Japan clover. 

Lichens. Low moss-like plants growing on rocks or wood. 

Lister. A plow having a double moldboard and throwing dirt both 

ways. 
Loam. A mixture of sand and clay. 

M 

Magnesium. A chemical element existing in all soils in combination 
with other elements. 

Magnify. To make large in appearance by means of a micro- 
scope. 



326 GLOSSARY 

Mammary Veins. Milk veins of a cow just forward from the udder. 
Manganese. A metal somewhat like iron — an element. 
Mechanical Change. Any change in a substance not as complete 

as a chemical change. 
Membranes. Thin walls or divisions. 

Microscope. An instrument for making things look large. 
Monocotyledons. Plants having one seed leaf. 
Mulch. A cover of leaves, straw, or fine earth for the land. 
Muriate of Potash. A compound of potash and chlorine containing 

50 per cent of potash, and used as a fertilizer. 

N 

Nitrate of Soda. A readily soluble compound containing nitrogen. 
Nitrogen. A chemical element composing about four-fifths of the 

air. 
Nodule. See Tubercle. 
Nutrients. The parts of feed stuff that may nourish the animal. 

O 

Organic Matter. Any material that was formed from living beings, 
such as plants and animals. 

Osmosis. The mixing of liquids of different strengths through mem- 
branes, or cell walls. 

Oxygen. The gas composing about one-fifth of the air and necessar}- 
for breathing. 

P 

Parasite. A plant or animal living on another plant or animal. 
Pasterns. Part of a horse's fore leg between the hoof and the joint 

above. 
Perennial Plant. A plant living more than two years. 
Phosphorus. The metal which forms phosphoric acid when combined 

with oxygen. 
Physical Change. See Mechanical Change. 
Pistil. The part of the flower making the seed. 
Pollen. The dust on the stamens of a flower that fertilizes the 

seed. 
Pollenized. Fertilized with pollen. 
Porous. Having pores; being open. 
Potassium. The metal which, combined with oxygen, makes 

potash . 
Prolificness. Bearing abundantly. 

Propagate. To multiply by planting, transplanting, etc. 
Protein. The constituent of food containing nitrogen. 
Pruning. Cutting trees back, or trimming. 
Pulverize. To crumble and make fino, 

Q 

Quarantine. To keep within certain limits. 



GLOSSARY 32T 

R 
Rabies. Madness, as in dog-. 
Reservoir. A storage pond for water. 

Rotation. A certain round, or order, for instance of crops. 
Roughage. Coarse feed such as hay, straw, or cotton-seed hulls ; also 
called " roughness." 

S 

Sanitary. Cleanly; conducive to health. 

Scion. The part of a plant inserted in a stock in grafting. 

Sedentary. Remaining in place. 

Shredding. Tearing into fine particles. 

Silicon. The metal largely composing sand. 

Silo. A pit or building for preserving green feed. 

Sodium. The metal forming soda when combined with oxygen. 

Soiling. Growing green crops and cutting and feeding to animals. 

Soluble. Dissolving in water. 

Special-purpose. For one purpose. 

Species. A group of plants or animals rather closely related. 

Spores. Seeds of fungi. 

Sport. A plant or animal quite different from its ancestors. 

Spraying. Sprinkling or forcing liquids in a fine spray over plants. 

Stamens. The parts of flowers furnishing pollen to fertilize the 
pistils. 

Sterilize. To kill germs, generally by heat. 

Stock. Plant into which another plant is grafted or budded. 

Stomata. Pores or holes in plant leaves that take in air and give off 
water. 

Stover. Dried corn stalks after the grain has been removed. 

Subsoil. Part of soil under the top soil. 

Succulent. Green; containing nuich water. 

Sucrose. Grain or crystal sugar. 

Sulphate of Potash. A compound of potash and sulphuric acid con- 
taining 50 per cent of potash. 

Superphosphate. Acid phosphate. 



Terracing. Leveling land in a Avay to prevent washing. 

Tetanus. A disease called lockjaw. 

Thermometer. Instrument for measuring temperature. 

Thorax. That part between the head and abdomen. 

Tillage. Working the land. 

Transplanting. Taking up and setting out plants again. 

Transported. Moved from original place. 

Trifolium. Having three little leaves on one stem. 

Tubercle. A wart or knot or nodule on roots of leguminous plants. 

U 
Udder. The milk organs to which the teats are attached. 



328 GLOSSARY 



Veterinary Science. The science teaching the prevention and cure 

of diseases of animals. 
Vitality. Strength to germinate and grow. 
Vulture. A buzzard, or carrion crow. 

W 

Water Table. The level of standing water in the soil. 
Withers. The high point above the shoulders of a horse. 

Z 

Zebu. The sacred cattle of India. 



INDEX 



Acclimation fever, 250, 251. 

Acid phosphate, 88, 89, 93, 94, 95, 

97, 98. 
Actinomj'-cosis, or lumpy jaw of 

cattle, 320. 
Alabama Experiment Station, 

Depth of plowing, 107. 

Experience with fertilizers, 103. 

Restorative crops for oats, 159. 
Alfalfa, 197, 198. 
Alkali land, 17. 

Angora goats, 279, 280, 282, 283. 
Animal diseases, 250-254 ; Appendix. 
Animal husbandry, 255-257. 
Animal manures, 3, 95. 
•Aimual plants, 53. 
Anthrax or charbon of stock, 319. 
Arkansas fruit land, 221. 
Arkansas rice land, 163, 164. 
Arsenate of lead, 302. 
Artichoke, Jerusalem, 206. 
Ash, 235. 
Asparagus, Appendix, 295. 

Bacteria, 46-51. 

Effects on soils and manures, 47. 

On legvimes, 48. 
Bad teeth of horse, 315. 
Bagasse, 175. 
Balanced ration, 246. 
Banana family, 297. 
Barley, 155. 
l^arnyard manure, 95. 
Beans, velvet, sov, 196, 197. 
Bees, 284, 285. 
Beets, 298. 

Beggar weed, 204, 205. 
Bennett, Professor R. L., experiments 
in raising early cotton, 141, 
142, 143. 
Bermuda grass, 208, 209. 
Biennial plants, 53. 



Birds, 133. 
Blackberry, 66, 299. 
Blackleg, 250, 319. 
Black prairie, 20, 21. 
Blight, 49. 

Blind staggers of horse, 317. 
Boll weevil, 128-134. 
Bordeaux mixture, 303. 
Borer, Peach, 306. 
Budding, 62, 63. 
Bur clover, 202. 
Burbank, Luther, 76. 
Butter making, 289-293. 

Cabbage, 229, 230, 231, 299. 
Cactus, feeding, 248. 
Campbell, H. W., 108, 157. 
Capillary attraction, 39. 
Carbo-hydrates, 235. 
Carbonic acid gas, 2, 6. 
Carpet grass, 209. 
Cattle, 263-273. 
Celery, 216, 233, 299. 
Chemistry of soil and products, 31-35. 
Cherries, 62. 
Chickens, 283, 284. 
Chinch bug, 305. 
Chinese, plowing land wet, 116. 
Methods of groM'ing rice, 162. 
Chloro-naphtholium, 318. 
Chufa, or grass nut, 206. 
Churn, 290. 

Citrus Fruits, 224, 225. 
Clay and clay-loam soils, 15. 
Clover, red, mammoth, crimson, 201- 

204. 
Coast prairies, 18. 
Coco, or nut-grass, 240. 
Cold-frames, 230, 231. 
Commercial fertilizers, 98-105, 
Complete fertilizer, 93. 
Composts and guanos, 92. 



329 



330 



INDEX 



Compounding rations, 244-249. 

Concentrates, 236. 

Constipation of cattle, 319. 

Copper acetate, 301. 

Corn, 149-153. 

Corn stover, 152, 153. 

Shredded, 152. 
Cotton, wliere grown, 135. 

Baling, wrapping,and handling, 145. 

Earliness and yield, 143. 

Jvidging, 146. 

Planting and cultivating, 138-141. 

Size of crop, 135. 

Thickness of planting, 144. 

Types to plant for, 143. 
Cotton seed, yield of products, 146- 
147. 

For feeding, 146. 

For fertilizing, 95. 
Cowpeas and peanuts, 181-185. 
Crab grass, 213, 214. 
Cream separator, 290, 291. 
Crop rotation, 86-90. 
Cross timbers, east and west, 23. 
Crossing and hybridizing, 59, 60. 
Crude fiber, 238, 239. 
Cucumber family, 299. 
Cultivating to save moisture, 43, 110. 
Cuttings, 65, 66. 

Dairv-bred steers for beef, 205, 

268. 
Dairying, 286-294. 
Diseases of aniinals, 250-254, 315- 

321. 
Of plants, 49, 50, 300, .301. 
Ditch, proper shape, 82, 83. 
Dixon, David, 92. 
Dog, 321. 
Doura corn, 190. 
Drainage, 82. 83. 84 
Draining marsh and creek land, 

83. 
Dry farming, 108. 
Dry matter, digestible nutrients, and 

fertilizing matter in 100 lb. 

feed stuffs, 240-243. 

Earthworms, 80. 
Eggplant, 299. 



Elements, 30-35. 

Elevation and productions, 28, 29. 

Evaporation from earth, 42, 43. 

From leaves, 41. 

Produces cold, 42, 43. 
Extensive farming, 215, 216. 

Families, economic, of plants, 295- 

300. 
Fats, 234, 235. 
Feeding animals, 234-249. 
Feet of horses, 316. 
Fertilizer, stimulating effects, 101, 

102. 
Fertilizer mixtures, 99, 100. 

Manures and, 92-97. 
Fertilizers, commercial, 98-105. 
Fibrous roots, 56. 
Figs, 221, 222, 223, 298. 
Flies, 127, 128. 

Florida beggar weed, 204, 205. 
Florida cattle, 270, 271., 
Flowers, 58, 59, 60. 
FormaUn, 228, 319. 
Fowls, poultry, 283, 284. 
Fruits, 215-225. 
Fungicides, 300, 301. 
Fungous diseases, 49, 50. 

Gardening, Truck, 227-233. 

Geese, 284. 

Georgia Experiment Station, 

Experience witli rotation, 89. 

Rotation subsoiling, 106. 
Germs, Bacteria or, 46-50. 

Effects on industries, 47. 

Effects on soils and manures, 47. 
Girdler, Twig, 307. 
Glacier, 10, 11. 
Glanders of horses, 317, 318. 
Goosefoot family, 298. 
Grade stock, 286, 287. 
Grafting, 64, 65. 
Grape, 299. 
Grape fruit, 224. 
Grass family, 296, 297. 
Grasses and other forage crops, 208- 

214. 
Great plains, 22, 23. 
Guanos and composts, 92. 



INDEX 



3^1 



Guinea and Para grasses, 212, 213. 

Hairy vetch, 199. 

Hams, Smithfield, 275. 

Hawaii, yields of cane, 170. 

Henry's feeds and feeding, 268. 

Hog cholera, 253. 

Hog raising, 275-279. 

Horses and mules, raising, 258-262. 

Host, 300. 

Hotbed, 229. 

Hunter, Dr. W. D., 129. 

Hybrid, 60. 

Improving the land, 78, 84. 

Insect friends and enemies, 125- 

134. 
Insecticides, 302-304. 
Insects, harmful, and remedies, 304- 

307. 
Indigestion, of horses, 315. 

Of cattle, 318, 319. 
Intensive farming, 215, 216. 
Iowa Experiment Station, 268. 
Irish potatoes, 227-229, 299. 
Irrigation, 119-124. 

Amovint of water for success, 

123. 
Arid sections, 120. 
For rice, 119. 

In humid sections, 120, 121, 
122. 

Japan clover, 210. 
Japanese rice culture, 162. 
Japanese persimmon, 63. 
Jerusalem artichoke, 206. 
Johnson grass, 210, 211, 212. 
Judging, Cotton, 146. 

Beef cattle, 312, 313. 

Dairy cows, 313, 314. 

Draft horses, 308, 309. 

Light horses, 310, 311. 

Live stock, 308-314. 

Kafir corn, 190-195. 

Kainit, 93. 

Kansas Experiment Station, 

Experiment with cattle, 268. 

Subsoihng, 106. 



Kerosene emulsion, 302. 
Kinds of soil, 15-26. 

Larva, I^oll weevil, 128. 

Layering, 65, 66. 

Legumes, bacteria on, 48. 

Lily family, 297. 

Lime, 33. 

Lime soil, 19, 20, 21. 

Lime sulphur wash, 302. 

Liquid manure, 96. 

Loam soil, 15. 

Louisiana Experiment Station, 

Depth for fertilizer, 103. 

Rotation, 89. 
Lung fever of horses, 316. 

Mallein, 317. 

Malley, Professor F. W., 129. 

Mallow family, 298. 

Mammoth clover, 203. 

Manures and fertilizers, 92-96. 

Materials of commercial fertilizer. 

93. 
Melilotus, 203, 204. 
Melon wilt, 50. 
Mexican clover, 204. 
Milk fever of cows, 320. 
Milo-maize, 190-195. 
Minnesota Bulletins on beef cattle, 

268. 
Mississippi Experiment Station, 

Beef cattle, 268. 

Subsoihng, 106-108. 
Mixing fertihzer, 98-101. 
Moisture, soil, 37-41. 
Mosquitoes, 128. 
Muck land, need of potash, 101. 
Mulberrv, 298. 
Mulch, i08. 
Mustard family, 298. 

Nail prick of horse, 316. 
Nightshade family, 299. 
Nitrate of soda, 99. 
Nitrogen, 33. 

Nitrogen-free extract, 238, 239. 
Nitrogen-gathering crops, 4S, 49. 
Nodules, or tubercles, 48, 49. 
Nutrients, 236. 



832 



INDEX 



Oats, 158. 

And vetch, 159. 
Olive familv, 300. 
Onion, 232, 233. 
Orange famih% 299. 
Orcliard crops, 215-225. 
Osmosis, 56, 57. 

Palm family. 297. 

Para and Guinea grass, 212, 213. 

Paris green, 302. 

Parsley, 299. 

Pasture grasses, 208-214. 

Pea family, 299. 

Peach, 217-220. 

Peanuts, Cowpeas and, 181-185. 

Pears, 64. 

Peas, 181-185. 

Pecans, 223, 224. 

Budding, 63. 
Peppers, 299. 
Perennial plants, 53. 
Phosphoric acid, 34, 35. 
Physics of soil, 37-44. 
Pistil, 58. 

Plant diseases, 49, 50. 
Plant food, proportions from air, 

earth, and water, 1-4, 6. 
Plowing, Deep, 106-108. 

Flat or in beds, 112. 

In the fall, 113, 114. 

To save moisture, 114, 115. 
Plows, sandy land, black land, 109. 
Plum. 62. 
Poisoned bait, 304. 
Pollen, 58. 

PoUination, 58, 59, 60. 
Poor land, unprofitable, 78. 
Potash, 35. 

Potassium sulphate, 99. 
Potato, Irish, 227-229, 299. 

Sweet, 176^180, 228. 
Poultry, 283, 284. 
Prickly pear, feeding, 248. 
Proportions of plant food, 100. 101. 
Protein, 234. 
Pruning, 219. 
Pulling fodder, 152, 153. 

Quarantine Une, 251, 252. 



Rape, 204. 
Ration, 244-249. 

Balanced, 246. 
Razor-backs, 275. 
Red lands, 20, 21. 
Restorative crops, 88, 89 
Rice, 162-168. 

Oriental methods, 162, 163. 

Products in sack of, 167, 168. 
Rock, how made into soil, 8, 9, 10. 
Root tubercles, 48, 49. 
Roots, 55, 56. 
Rotation of crops, 86-91. 
Round bales of cotton, 142, 145. 
Rye, 155. 

Saceharimeter 172. 

San Jose scale, 218, 306. 

Satsuma orange, 63. 

Scab, potato, 228. 

Scion, 65. 

Scours of calves, 318. 

Seed selection, 68-77. 

Semiarid soils, Arid and, 15, 16. 

Sheep and goats, 279, 280. 

Sirup making, 171-173. 

Soil, 8. 

How formed, 8, 9, 10, 11. 

Light and heavy, 26. 
Sorghums, 190-195. 
Sport, 71, 72. 
Spraying, 300, 301 . 
Stamens, 58. 
Stimulating effect of fertilizers, 101, 

102. 
Stock, 63. 

Strawberries, 59, 299. 
Subsoil, 8. 

Subsoihng, 106, 107. 
Sugar cane, 169-175. 

Making sirup and sugar, 171-175. 
Sulphur spray, 304. 
Svmshine, its work, 33, 34. 
Sweet potato, 176-180, 228. 

Terracing, 80-82. 

Texas Experiment Station, 71, 129. 

Texas fever, 250, 251. 

Tick, cattle, 127, 128. 

Tile draining. 83, 84. 



INDEX 



383 



Tillage, 113-117. 
Toad, 134. 
Tobacco, 186-189. 

Shade-grown, 187, 188. 
Tomato, 229-231. 
Turkeys, 284. 

Udder of cows, Disease of, 320, 321. 

Vetfh,- 159. 

Vetch, hairy, see Hairy vetcli. 

Vitality of seed, 70, 71. 

Walnut family, 297, 298. 
Water, forming soil, 11, 12. 



Water, evaporated from soil, 42, 43. 

Of soils, 37-42. 

Required by crops, 37. 
Weeds, 71. 
Weevil, Cotton boll, 128-134. 

Grain, 127. 
Whale-oil soap, 303. 
AVheat, 154-161. 

In a barrel of flour, 157, 158. 
Wind-blown soils, 12. 
Wisconsin Experiment Station, 

Experiment with hogs, 276. 
Worms of horses, 315. 
Wounds of horse, 318. 

Zebu, or sacred cattle, 263, 264. 



MAY 38 1308 



/ 



J 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDDESab3'^t.3 



TE 



CENTTS 



CONTRACT PRiCE - < 

EXCMANOE PRICE - 30 CENTS 

The prices marked hereon are fixed 
by the 5tate and deviation therefrom 
shoutd be reported to the State 
Superintendent at Austin. Texas. 



